this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2026
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The reactions to this have been pretty hysterical considering this is an experimental branch on his own repository. I'm not surprised he might experiment with using AI agents to solve a particular pain point to see how it does. This is using agents to experiment with things that you might not have time to address normally.
Another recent example is the build system where the author said:
off-loading the boring grunt work of identifying bottle necks and trying new approaches seems like an ideal task for a junior agent to deal with as long is you don't YOLO the result to the lists for other humans to de-slopify for you.
(Or not de-slopify at all.)
There's literally no one I trust more to handle llm code more than Linus.
He's not going to pass off shit in his name. He'll use it in the best possible way.
Lots of reasons to be anti-AI, but it's not all black and white. It's here to stay and it's useful. (But we ain't gonna spend 400 billion a year on it.)
People cannot seem to grasp that there is a difference in using LLMs to experiment and just blindly using code written by an LLM. You'd think they would realize Linus is never going to do the latter. Binary thinking leads to this...
LLM companies will legitimize their shit by saying "look, Linus is using our model to make Linux better".
Okay, and? So he should either change his own processes or keep them secret because some dickbag might claim he's legitimized their product?
I think people in a bubble like this platform seem to miss that AI tools are already "legitimized". I am not stating an opinion, I'm just saying what the average person thinks, which is that they are useful. The reality is a lot more complicated than that and I think they're leading us bad places but I don't think your argument works at all
The tools are "legitimized" by a mass ad campaign to shove LLMs down our throats.
Linus is a very influential person in this space and hin using Claude for whatever project he has will legitimize the massive ad campaign that LLMs companies are pushing. It's a jackpot for them. Organic publicity by one of the biggest nerd of the world.
Any push towards LLMs is only benefiting the ultra wealthy and destroying the planet. And this is exactly what this piece of news is doing.
Even if you were right this message would be irrelevant to 99% of the population and within the 1% who know or care who he is, minimum 75% wouldn't be swayed by him saying that. Plus, him saying he used it is not praise.
is there a difference in the environmental destruction when used this way? no? these things have so many negative effects on the world in so many areas that making life more convenient for coddled computer touches doesn’t excuse literally any of it
Yes. There is no doubt that if you use an LLM for everything that will use several fold more times electricity than someone who uses it a few times a year.
Like I said, binary thinking. You're literally saying there is no difference in 1 and 1000000 because both are more than zero.
so the less you use it, the better? glad we can agree
Right, so we know Linus has used Claude for one project. You are saying there is no excuse for that and I don't agree. I don't think it makes sense to take absolute stances against things that will undoubtedly be used by most everyone eventually. Just like I think cars are generally bad, I'm not about to get pissed off at everyone who drives them.
the earth doesn’t care if you think this is a good use or linus is somehow worthy when the regular plums aren’t.
dario and his epstein wife sure do though. so keep going to bat for them
Your absolutism will take you nowhere. No one will bother to even listen you because you aren't able to communicate about this topic.
i’m glad you have a word to hug and hold when you feel threatened by people who are different from you
Lmfao dude you are demonizing anyone who uses any LLM the same as someone who uses it constantly and irresponsibly. Who is threatened by people different from them? You're embodying exactly the out of touch rage I'm criticizing.
the issue is the use, not the user, and who and what it supports, directly and indirectly. you’re just trotting out a word so you don’t have to think anymore. you like the tech and don’t want to feel bad about it
tough
Firstly, it's an incredibly accurate description of what you're doing here
Secondly, you have no clue what views I hold and you're not even slightly curious. The only reason you commented here was to make my day a little worse. You think it's justified because of your pigheaded refusal to accept reality. But it's not.
you don’t know me, my thinking, or my motivations, and yet have no problem accusing me of absolutism
irony ain’t dead yet, and projection ain’t just a river in egypt
I have no problem pointing out precisely what you've said. I'll freely admit to having zero curiosity about a zealot's views or motivations. Nothing could bore me more.
For me, there's more to it than just the output. But I'm sure Linus won't let his mind rot in LLM. Yet. Still... Lots of reasons to object to using AI at all. Use a computer responsibly, folks.
I can absolutely understand some of the objections and I understand why writers and artists are pissed. My code has always been free software so I don't object to it being in the training sets because that seems fair use according to the four freedoms.
The power usage is definitely a concern but that holds up for all computing. I don't see people up in arms about inefficient CI loops retesting the whole world for a single line change. Think of savings that could be made!
But what about the output of an LLM that was trained on free software, then being used in closed source, commercial software? 🙁
Oh yeah, I'm definitely with you there. Oh gosh.
They probably should be up in arms! Both are bad things, simultaneously, as two things can be!
i FULLY expected more hate. lol
It seems like the tide is finally starting to turn here in terms of LLM usage. Even 4 months ago this thread would be a nightmare lol
It's a slippery slope. So far Linus has gone from using it to find bugs, to using it as a programming assistant, and now ostensibly to vibecode entire features.
Where will it end? Will Linus shut off external contributions and let the agents loose like Bun did? That would be a tragedy in my book.
We can just fork the latest kernel version we feel comfortable with.
The phrase vibecode has become totally meaningless. The original use was too "give in too the vibes" and let the agent go wild. There is no indication that is what Linus is doing.
The fact is LLM's have proven to be good at finding bugs. Suitably constrained they can be diligent and helpful assistants.
The Bun experience is instructive and if that was Linus' end goal it would be concerning but I don't see any evidence that any of the Linux maintainers are interested in that sort of wholesale conversion. The good projects with taste will adjust to the new tools and the slop projects will eventually collapse under their own contradictory architectures.