Sharp: Closing a door

> Part of the way I see it, there is nobody who has risen to the position to be able to take the position of chief maintainer from Linus.

"Risen"? That word could be exposing your prejudices.
Where I come from, the key role of a leader is to support the workers, enable them to get the work done, lift them up when they fall down, support them so they don't trip.
Seeing a leader at the "top" of a pyramid is such an unhelpful picture.

Leadership is certainly an important role, but not necessarily more important than any other.
Leadership is also a specialist role. It is harder to replace a leader than some other roles, but not all.

I suspect there are a number of people who could step into Linus' shoes if they were vacated. Each would bring a different set of strengths - certainly not the same strengths as Linus, but probably not the same weaknesses either.

But as Linus' shoes are not vacated, there are no candidates pressing for the job (and if there were, we probably would reject them for that reason).

> I simply cannot imagine a female persona that would equate software development with a barfight.

I've never had doubts about my gender before ... but maybe I'm a bit female.