No they really aren’t. It’s not like Nvidia or and or gigabyte and does that excuse it? Steve knows Linus. They may not have been BFFs but they are friends and colleagues and a heads up in the right thing to do here. I think that’s a valid criticism and Steve’s response to that is shitty “I didn’t have to” semantics and the “they are a big company. We are small. We fight big guy!” undertones make his original video seem more “targeted” to begin with–and might explain why he didn’t reach out.

You impugned their integrity, ethics, and called them out. If I was about to call out a peer publicly, even if I wasn’t going to change anything or ask them for a comment, I’d give them a heads up. It’s just really poor form and Linus as done so much for this community I think he deserved a “heads-up”, “I’m about to call out your bad reviews and the billet situation. I didn’t want the first you hear of it to be from the community. If you want to respond afterwards let me know”