Linus' argument is that for the kind of low-level code where C is
useful, C++ doesn't offer any advantages; only problems.
I thought this as well, but I have found that using only a few features
(in particular organizing code in classes with member functions, instead
of creating interfaces which pass their object as an explicit first
argument) will really make the result a lot more readable. Of course
using C++ doesn't give any problems at all, as long as you use it
properly. Unless you consider "I'm unable to use 'new' as an identifier
name" a problem.