Meh - I'm pretty sure Torvalds is just saying in public what thousands of other people were thinking quietly.
It sure is unpleasant to have your mistakes pointed out in public... but it's a hell of a lot better than not even knowing you made a mistake at all which is usually what happens.
It would be better if Torvalds told the guy he's an idiot in a private email but I'm not going to get worked up over that. Honestly I have a bigger problem with The Register making a headline out of it. The kernel mailing list is relatively private... this article is going to be attached to this poor engineer for the rest of his career. They should have omitted his name at least.