I think it's valid to not want to use software if you think that using it will contribute to a philosophy that you don't like. And it is true that many people choose GPL because they didn't bother to do any research and think it's just a safe default, but enough people do choose it because they believe that proprietary software is evil or morally wrong in some way.
Personally I'd like to see BSD become more of a serious contender for the user-friendly FOSS desktop, able to use proprietary blobs of code without legal factors to consider.
Linux is just a Kernel, and Linus is the copyright-owner (of Linux (the brand)), not the 'owner' of code mostly others made.
>I would argue the author has a similarly silly attitude which is the GPL is so bad he won't even taint his machine with it.
Please read the article again, it's not against GPL but against those extreme RMS-mind's in the FSF community.