Never really got the whole controversy around that, and looks like Linus didn't really either. I would potentially chalk it up to cultural differences. At least where I live (and maybe in Canada?) we have quite strong consumer protection laws to the point that pretty much all warranties are less strong than the law is, so I don't really pay attention to them at all.

I came in at the tail-end of the controversy and didn't get it either, but then I watched the initial comment Linus made on the stream that started it and it was really weird. Basically his argument for not having a warranty was "if I die and my wife has to take over the business but doesn't want to, I don't want there to be any liabilities that she needs to be on the hook for".

You're a big business employing dozens of people and selling millions of dollars worth of goods now, you can't have the attitude "if I don't want to do this anymore I want an out where I can just say sayonara thanks for the fish"

eh. the warranty that they have now issued is less than what the level they want. so people still want to trust them to "underpromise and over deliver" as they say. I'm not convinced it really hurt them.