Linus Torvalds tries vibe coding (go.theregister.com)
from tonytins@pawb.social to programming@programming.dev on 13 Jan 2026 15:53
https://pawb.social/post/37993461

We recently wrote about Torvalds’ atypically subtle and nuanced position on the use of LLM bots in coding. It seems that the reasons have suddenly become a little clearer.

Google’s Antigravity LLM has been winning other friends of late, including Register columnist Mark Pesce, who wrote that “vibe coding will deliver a wonderful proliferation of personalized software.” Some other big names in the world of FOSS have also come out in favor of LLM coding assistants recently, including Redis creator Salvatore “Antirez” Sanfilippo, who wrote “don’t fall into the anti-AI hype.” Said hype is, of course, a subject about which Torvalds opined previously.

Torvalds’ position has been more moderate, which is not entirely like his former self. He is famed for his outbursts at Nvidia, GitHub, third-party companies, and kernel contributors. We could go on, but you get the picture.

#programming

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Solumbran@lemmy.world on 13 Jan 2026 18:04 next collapse

Because anyone can fall for stupid shit.

Tldr, he’s fine with it because he was lazy

Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works on 13 Jan 2026 18:51 collapse

ITT: Anything that makes work easier for the same end goal is laziness.

Solumbran@lemmy.world on 14 Jan 2026 01:19 collapse

The guy literally said that he didn’t want to bother learning python and that it’s why he used this crap.

If that’s not intellectual laziness I don’t know what is.

tetrislife@leminal.space on 14 Jan 2026 12:45 next collapse

I think it is intellectual laziness to do Python just for its ecosystem when saner options abound.

froufox@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 14 Jan 2026 17:40 next collapse

Today we knew that Linus Torvalds is lazy and stupid ✍️

ieGod@lemmy.zip on 14 Jan 2026 21:42 collapse

Don’t be a stupid shit. You use things on the daily without full comprehension of them.

Solumbran@lemmy.world on 15 Jan 2026 04:32 collapse

If you write code without understanding what you’re doing, to the point where an AI is achieving better results, you should question your choices.

monkeyman512@lemmy.world on 13 Jan 2026 20:58 next collapse

If I read it correctly, he used a LLM to help him write Python for a hobby project. I think this falls into an open minded, “who cares?”. Come back when he used it for something intended for public or commercial use.

froufox@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 14 Jan 2026 17:39 collapse

He never would in critical code such as Linux kernel

BenevolentOne@infosec.pub on 14 Jan 2026 18:38 collapse

I wouldn’t be so sure.

Pragmatically minded folks are not always concerned with the details of how something is done.

After all, he often uses code written by people other than himself in the kernel, he works to ensure those people are well clothed and fed, but that’s hardly the point of the linux project. The user experience is not so different from vibe coding.

UnfortunateShort@lemmy.world on 14 Jan 2026 00:15 next collapse

Say it with me: It’s not vibe coding if you read and understand the code.

That is not vibes, that is knowing what you’re doing and working based off of a suggestion.

phoenixz@lemmy.ca on 14 Jan 2026 00:47 collapse

This

I also sometimes use AI for small bits and pieces and the vast majority of the time it gets about 10-20% wrong which I then have to fix

There is a net-gain in time on these small bits and pieces, but it’s not really able to do more than that

thingsiplay@lemmy.ml on 15 Jan 2026 04:50 next collapse

Maybe its not a bad idea to experiment with the tools that lot of people do, so it might help understanding what code it produces. That might be not his original goal, but its a nice side effect I guess.

thingsiplay@lemmy.ml on 15 Jan 2026 04:54 collapse

Here is a video about this subject: inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=hymd3Xc7cCU This channel (SavvyNik) often directly reads and shows parts of the original mailing list source, and if available the relevant part of the interview in video form.