Theo's bad attitude is more the stuff of rumor rather than fact. More than a decade ago, when I first heard about Theo's abrasiveness, I went through nearly every mailing list post he'd ever made looking for the dirt (I was a teenager with time to kill). The end result? A dozen or so flames directed toward people who, in my eyes, seemed to have it coming.
It's a shame people don't talk as much about his tireless dedication to an important but relatively small open source project. He really is one of the true open source heroes.
I was doing CS at U of C same time he was. While I have a lot of respect for him in many areas, and found him entertaining to hang out with at times, there is just no way to overstate how abrasive and how much of an opinionated arrogant asshole he can be. (Something I don't think he'd disagree with.)
It's a shame people don't talk as much about his tireless dedication to an important but relatively small open source project. He really is one of the true open source heroes.