Is Linus Torvalds rude? What is it like to work with him?
Read this thread for example: https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/12/23/75
People who don't understand much about programming, operating system or software maintenance - might considered this response by Travolds to be "rude".
But they are mistaken, because they are not aware of the whole process of kernel development and don't understand fully the implications and importance of cretin issues and how they should be handled.
Especially in the eyes of Linux users, this kind of response is absolutely necessary - if you wish to keep a piece of software that is installed on millions of machines in healthy state.
I don’t wish to reply that the rude approach is only way, but Linus tends to be that kind of guy, where he prefers to be rude then politically correct to maintain Linux kernel, and it works.
As a Linux user I'm very happy this kind of approach was taken and think Linus does his job incredibly well while taking this approach.