This is my point exactly. I'd consider both git and the Linux kernel tough projects, so the choice of the programming language is interesting. More so, given his stance on C++.
How come it's interesting ? Linus has always been a C -programmer, and kernel space is something where you want to keep things simple and access tha raw bits of things, so C is a natural choice.
And if you've been programming C for 20 years or more, writing git with C feels like a natural solution.
It's not always about writing stuff with the most high definition solution, it's more about expressing ideas with the tools you know also.
> I've come to the conclusion that any programmer that would prefer the project to be in C++ over C is likely a programmer that I really would prefer to piss off, so that he doesn't come and screw up any project I'm involved with.
Quintessential Linus, but I wouldn't call this an "evaluation"... :)
The kernel and git are in C