> politically correct avoid-the-language-of-conflict and make sure you dress up every insult as a compliment
These are two extremes, and you can find a middle ground between them.
In particular, here's a middle ground from someone objecting to Linus for willfully breaking userspace because he didn't think backwards-compatibility was important (a thing that he flames others to a crisp for), in a way that clearly expressed objection but not insult: https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/5/29/541
I'm sure if you go and sift through the incredible volume of product that Linus has made over the years you will find a few more examples of absolutely shocking behavior.
What's the last time someone did the opposite and searched for all the times when Linus was on his best behavior?
Have you considered the parallels with the Richelieu quote:
"If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him. "
Linus has written far more than six lines and I'm sure you'll be able to do a stellar job of hanging him. But you're going to have to consider whether your ability hinges on Linus' perceived personality or on the volume of his communications and product.
That's a fair point, and I am really curious to see all the times he was on his best behavior now. :)
But I think it's a little weakened by the fact that Linus doesn't think that his poorest behavior was actually poor or indefensible; if pressed he says it's exactly what he should have done.
As a good counterexample involving a developer of another kernel, I once mentioned 'bcantrill making a personal attack on the Solaris development list in the midst of a technical argument in 1996, and he found the HN thread and replied to me with an unambiguous apology, despite it being almost twenty years later and him doubtless being a different person now: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9040602
Even the smallest sign that Linus genuinely thinks the behavior was suboptimal (not a "I want you people to stop complaining," which is basically what the Code of Conflict was) would go a long way towards changing everyone's perception of his behavior. But he's standing by the six lines.
Agreed, Linus doesn't see it as a problem. But that's his right no? I think he only cares about one thing: to get the job done. I don't think he cares one bit about how people perceive him and I suspect that his words in written form come across a lot harsher than they would have been if they were spoken in person and in a room with just a handful of people rather than online and visible to all the world and archived for eternity.
These are two extremes, and you can find a middle ground between them.
In particular, here's a middle ground from someone objecting to Linus for willfully breaking userspace because he didn't think backwards-compatibility was important (a thing that he flames others to a crisp for), in a way that clearly expressed objection but not insult: https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/5/29/541