Shop Sign in News Culture Books Business & Tech Humor Cartoons Magazine Video Podcasts Archive Goings On Elements By Noam Cohen September 19, 2018 After years of verbally abusing programmers who contribute to the Linux operating-system kernel he created, the celebrated coder Linus Torvalds is stepping aside and says he is getting help. Photograph by Kimmo Mäntylä / REX / Shutterstock The e-mails of the celebrated programmer Linus Torvalds land like thunderbolts from on high onto public lists, full of invective, insults, and demeaning language. “Please just kill yourself now. The world will be a better place,” he wrote in one . “Guys, this is not a dick-sucking contest,” he observed in another . “SHUT THE FUCK UP!” he began in a third . Torvalds has publicly posted thousands of scathing messages targeting programmers who submit what he deems flawed code to the Linux computer-operating...