Perception of relative intelligence or sensible decision making is irrelevant. Just because you think you're doing a better job doesn't mean you need to shit on the other person.
You could not mention Linux at all, or you could even say "we think this is better than Linux's approach because of X" and it would be a great improvement.
I have always found it interesting that Rust purposefully avoided doing language comparisons - "we're better than Python like this and better than C like that". Their message purposefully avoided any positioning of it as a competition, instead focusing just on articulating Rust's value. It was an eye opening approach given our instinct is normally to pit things against each other.
You could not mention Linux at all, or you could even say "we think this is better than Linux's approach because of X" and it would be a great improvement.
I have always found it interesting that Rust purposefully avoided doing language comparisons - "we're better than Python like this and better than C like that". Their message purposefully avoided any positioning of it as a competition, instead focusing just on articulating Rust's value. It was an eye opening approach given our instinct is normally to pit things against each other.