Immediately after Linux creator Linus Torvalds announced that he would be taking some time off to work on his behavior issues, the larger Linux development community adopted a Code of Conduct. Greg Kroah-Hartman, who is filling Torvalds’ shoes during his time away, wrote that the community’s previous rules, called a Code of Conflict, was “not achieving its implicit goal of fostering civility and the spirit of ‘be excellent to each other.'”
The new Code of Conduct starts with the following sentence: “In the interest of fostering an open and welcoming environment, we as contributors and maintainers pledge to making participation in our project and our community a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of age, body size, disability, ethnicity, sex characteristics, gender identity and expression, level of experience, education, socio-economic status, nationality, personal appearance, race, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.”
But some developers in the open source community have found the language offensive. Complaints have surfaced on Twitter and Reddit; however, on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML), actual Linux developers appear to be taking the changes in stride.
