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Debian Linux

'Linusgate': Debian Project Leaders Want To Ban Linus Torvalds For His Manners (linuxreviews.org) 236

Artem S. Tashkinov writes: 253 emails have been leaked from private (high-level) mailing lists of Debian, in which its representatives vocally complain about the talk Linus Torvalds gave at the most recent DebConf conference. Some people insist that he should be permanently banned from future conferences because the language he uses is inappropriate and infringes on the project's Code of Conduct. This could set a very bad precedent for the open source community, which has recently seen an influx of various CoC policies applied to a number of high-profile projects mostly after very vocal concerns from the people who barely participate in the open source community. Some observers believe that it's a plot by Microsoft to destroy the open source movement from the inside.
UPDATE: "Note: The complaints and the event itself happened in 2014," the article points out.
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'Linusgate': Debian Project Leaders Want To Ban Linus Torvalds For His Manners

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  • by franzrogar ( 3986783 ) on Saturday September 05, 2020 @05:05AM (#60476016)

    If you don't want to hear the naked truth, you're the one who have to fuc* off.

  • Ancient History (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05, 2020 @05:08AM (#60476018)

    This is something which happened 6 years ago.

    Why is this presented as news now? Just someone stirring up trouble.

    • by burni2 ( 1643061 )

      You are right the eMails date are 2014.

      Sorry no points I cannot vote you up / might somebody with points so nice to do this instead of me?

      • Re:Ancient History (Score:5, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05, 2020 @06:19AM (#60476162)

        You are right the eMails date are 2014.

        Yes, someone just posted this a few minutes ago over on LinuxReviews:

        Everybody seems to gloss over the fact that this happened 6 years ago and the world didn't burn as a result. This sort of sensitive discussions are precisely why debian-private exists (it's not "high level", it's just not public outside Debian). This article tries very hard to be inflammatory by unearthing old history and presenting it as current.

        Somebody is just trying to stir up some shit.

    • Re:Ancient History (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05, 2020 @07:03AM (#60476222)

      Exactly. The summary talks about 'the most recent Debconf', no mention of 2014, it is dishonestly framed as somehow current, using weasel words to avoid direct lies.

      This entire thread is flamebait/clickbait without this context.

      This is purely aimed at getting people frothing at the mouth about Codes of Conduct, and massive shit stirring.

      Pathetic.

      If it started with ''six years ago, Linus spoke at Debconf, now some emails have leaked...' it would have been honest but basically a minor footnote in history.

      • Re:Ancient History (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Vlad_the_Inhaler ( 32958 ) on Saturday September 05, 2020 @07:18AM (#60476258)

        Things are not *quite* that simple - I do remember Linus himself saying he needed to be a bit less inflammatory in his comments - something which was reported here at the time - and it may well have been around this time. It was certainly several years ago and I suppose this argument could have been a contributory factor.
        Whatever, the whole business is years ago and another indication that the /. overlords have become very sloppy in their acceptance of submissions. I suppose you could say this story is a Dupe from 2014, although I no longer remember whether those emails were cited then.

    • Re:Ancient History (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Z80a ( 971949 ) on Saturday September 05, 2020 @09:27AM (#60476486)

      That's how those "witchhunts" happen.
      They will dig shit you said as a literal kid on the internet and whine until you get fired.

    • I suppose a small but vocal group of people who barely participate trying to tell everyone else what to do are, unfortunately, constantly newsworthy in these times.

    • Re:Ancient History (Score:4, Insightful)

      by HiThere ( 15173 ) <[ten.knilhtrae] [ta] [nsxihselrahc]> on Saturday September 05, 2020 @10:48AM (#60476662)

      OK. OTOH, I'm still upset about the way they included systemd, and that happened awhile ago, too.

    • by PPH ( 736903 )

      It's almost as if we are married to them. The way they keep bringing up old stuff.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      The Social Justice nutters having scored a victory not so long ago... are now doing what everyone knew they would do... going for the kill.

      Never let them into any projects and never let their wretched codes of conduct in either. The code will be used to remove you from your own project.

      The result will be you ousted and your project in flames as it ends up staffed with intersectional nutcases whose only skill is slander.

  • by beepsky ( 6008348 ) on Saturday September 05, 2020 @05:15AM (#60476030)
    Twitter was a mistake
  • Old news (Score:5, Informative)

    by tramp ( 68773 ) on Saturday September 05, 2020 @05:15AM (#60476034)
    Look at the date: Date: Wed, 3 Sep 2014 12:29:32 +0100 The world and even Linus has changed in the past six years. Nothing to see here.
    • Re:Old news (Score:4, Interesting)

      by sfcat ( 872532 ) on Saturday September 05, 2020 @05:46AM (#60476110)

      Look at the date: Date: Wed, 3 Sep 2014 12:29:32 +0100 The world and even Linus has changed in the past six years. Nothing to see here.

      I think what has changed here is that the names of those that complained 6 years ago have now been released. What happens from that is anybodies guess. If I ran a large open source project, I would probably use lists like this as purge lists for my project. You can pretty much bet that whoever complained the most or the loudest probably contributes nothing to the project except emails. Also, helps me setup email filters to send to identify irrelevant emails to send to folders I never read. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

      • Re:Old news (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Halo1 ( 136547 ) on Saturday September 05, 2020 @06:12AM (#60476150)

        I think what has changed here is that the names of those that complained 6 years ago have now been released.

        The summary claims it's about a speech that Linus gave at the most recent DebConf conference though, which is clearly false. It mainly seems like someone trying to start a flamewar about CoCs. Too bad we can't mod stories as flamebait.

        • Have we all lost the ability to tag stories? I seem to have.

          Maybe I "abused" it, from the viewpoint of Slashdot staff, by tagging stories accurately?

        • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

          I'd love to hear that speech though.

          I remember this happening at the time (2014... damn), but my impression was that it was just bitc... uh, whinging about e-mails or something.

    • That's exactly 6 years ago! The story must have been sucked from "This Day On Slashdot"!
  • I need to make some popcorn for this discussion!

    • You had six years, I hope that popcorn had preservatives.

      (posts above explain this is quite old news)
      • You had six years, I hope that popcorn had preservatives.

        (posts above explain this is quite old news)

        I know, but the age of news is quite irrelevant to a decent Slashdot argument. Check it out, this story about something 6 years old is the second most heavily commented on the front page, 78 posts bitching and counting, and the story's only been here for an hour or so.

        *eats some of that popcorn*

  • ...vocal concerns from the people who barely participate in the open source community

    Tell that to my Coffee Mug [zazzle.com].

  • who could imagine (Score:5, Interesting)

    by AbRASiON ( 589899 ) * on Saturday September 05, 2020 @05:36AM (#60476078) Journal

    That BeauHD would introduce one of the social justice headlines to slashdot again.

    Whomever pointed this out a few years ago, I don't know if I should curse or reward you. It's very clear BeauHD has very particular sources of news and social justice may even be more important than technology to him.

    Be warned before clicking such links or giving merit to this junk.

    • That BeauHD would introduce one of the social justice headlines to slashdot again.

      What do you mean again? Slashdot headlines have been consistently clickbait rubbish for years now.

  • Debian Politics (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Elixon ( 832904 ) on Saturday September 05, 2020 @05:37AM (#60476088) Homepage Journal

    Debian has been lately going very political! Now Debian weighs in on issues like gender equality, proper language... Did they forget they are software project and not an activist movement?

    I don't care about what they consider as "an issues". It honestly repels me what are they focusing on. If they continue I will look for some other friendly, tolerant Linux community that focuses solely on software.

    • Fuck tolerance, thats the phrase that started that ball rolling. How about just being Switzerland?

    • Re:Debian Politics (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Train0987 ( 1059246 ) on Saturday September 05, 2020 @06:54AM (#60476198)

      Isn't it ironic that SJW's proclaim their movement to be about tolerance when they're one of the most intolerant groups in history?

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by thegarbz ( 1787294 )

        Being intolerant of intolerance doesn't make a movement less about tolerance. I hope you're not a developer, because your grasp of logic would result in nothing but compiler errors.

        • Re:Debian Politics (Score:5, Informative)

          by Train0987 ( 1059246 ) on Saturday September 05, 2020 @08:31AM (#60476390)

          Just stop. If I create a movement named the "Good Guys Gang" does that mean anyone who disagrees with whatever outrageous goals of my group can automatically labeled the Bad Guys? Because that's exactly what we're seeing today. "Antifa" mastering fascist tactics and practicing them nightly. "BLM" demonstrating they could not care less about black lives by abusing black cops and black conservatives while ignoring black-on-black crime, etc. Opposing either group or their communist goals does not make one an actual fascist or white supremacist, yet that's what they've convinced a number of very dumb people to believe.

        • Re:Debian Politics (Score:4, Insightful)

          by markdavis ( 642305 ) on Saturday September 05, 2020 @08:56AM (#60476430)

          >"Being intolerant of intolerance doesn't make a movement less about tolerance."

          Actually, yes is can, entirely depending on the definitions used for "tolerance" and "intolerance." Just like being called "racist" for not agreeing with certain so-called "anti-racism" premises and actions, which is all to common now. Many who call for "tolerance" have no tolerance at all for other viewpoints. They simply label someone else as "intolerant" and try to shut them down.

          • I know. It's especially clear they are intolerant when you pretend what they are campaigning against doesn't actually exist.

            Ironically it seems the people most upset by social activism are bigger crybabies than they call out the SJWs for being.

            • "Ironically it seems the people most upset by social activism are bigger crybabies than they call out the SJWs for being."

              Firstly, your "social activism" is an entirely made up concept that can mean a hundred different things to a hundred different people. That phrase is meaningless, devoid of any reality, designed to attract the dumbest narcissists from the dumb pool. Secondly, WAKE THE FUCK UP! Stop being their useful idiot. Otherwise you'll be their cannon fodder four months from now after Trump wins

        • Being intolerant of intolerance doesn't make a movement less about tolerance

          People who make this point become the most intolerable fucks around. Creepingly everyone they don't like is labeled "intolerant," whether deserved or not.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Debian isn't just a software project, it's a community. That's why it's so successful.

    • Did they forget they are software project and not an activist movement?

      They can be whatever they want to be. Did you forget the large portion of the open source projects fundamentally *are* activist movements at their core?

    • I don't care about what they consider as "an issues". It honestly repels me what are they focusing on.

      So you don't care what they think, but you care so much that their thoughts "repel" you. I'm beginning to think you are more your own problem than the Debian developers. I mean you judge software based on if the developers have opinions or not. What's your next trick? A sentence starting with "I'm not sexist, but..."?

  • by sjames ( 1099 ) on Saturday September 05, 2020 @06:01AM (#60476136) Homepage Journal

    As others point out, this was 6 years ago, so the particular instance isn't all that important now. However, it does bring up a few more general and still applicable questions:

    If you call to ban someone from a culture that values not mincing words and is known for a rich vocabulary of swear words (perhaps related to not mincing words) because they didn't mince words and perhaps swore, shouldn't you yourself be banned for failure to show sensitivity for other cultures?

    This is a general problem with codes of conduct once they go much more specific than "Be excellent to each other". Unless they are unusually well crafted and flexible as well as deferring to unwritten exceptions whenever required, they inevitably end up breaking because a circumstance arises where enforcing one rule intrinsically violates another. Human relations, especially cross-cultural human relations are way too complex to codify into hard fast rules.

    OTOH, if they do defer to unwritten exceptions, they tend to devolve into a sort of dictatorship where the arbiter of the unwritten exceptions becomes, shall we say, uneven in their willingness to apply those exceptions, usually based (informally) on how closely the offending opinion matches their own.

    • You just get done reading animal farm? Thats pretty much the entire takeaway. Do as I say, not as I do.

      • by sjames ( 1099 )

        No, read it 40 years ago. I'm just observing things play out in real life with a few specifics. Not surprising that a social commentary might comment on something that remains relevant.

  • crybabies (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05, 2020 @06:27AM (#60476176)

    So I've watched the video they're complaining about.

    Out of a dozen or two questions, a couple wanted to bait Linus about political correctness and he handled himself with dignity.

    Because he doesnt agree with GPL 3? FSF zealots, hey he got the biggest laughs - suck it up.

    Or maybe Ian Jackson is one of those crazy people that hate being called crazy - ban him from debconf? Insane.

    • I'm thinking check his blood sugar and maybe a couple xannies before he takes the podium. We all get cranky. Maybe one of the quaaludes from wolf of wall street if anyone is saving one.
      • Good ol' R 714 hasn't been made since the 70s. Even if you had some I don't think I'd experiment with taking one today, 40 years later. Probably better/safer to smoke a doob or take an edible.

        Heck, I know a guy who had one in a baggie on his "wall of trophies, rememberences and cool shit from the 60s and 70s", right next to a genuine dose of purple microdot LSD and the butter knives he used to smoke hash. We were eyeballing those in the mid 90s and weren't thinking taking them *then* was a good idea, nev

  • by AndyKron ( 937105 ) on Saturday September 05, 2020 @06:33AM (#60476184)
    Ya ban him. What has Linus Torvalds done for the computing community? Now I'm running as fast as I can!
  • by markdavis ( 642305 ) on Saturday September 05, 2020 @06:42AM (#60476188)

    >"This could set a very bad precedent for the open source community, which has recently seen an influx of various CoC policies applied "

    Where does anyone think this would go or end? Once you start down the road of SOC, SJW, censorship, and other such grand ideals, it naturally eats itself alive because it is never enough and never satisfied. So many speaking of tolerance yet with no tolerance for what they don't like or believe. So many speaking of diversity yet with no diversity of what really matters- thought. So many speaking of justice with no concept as to what justice really means.

    "First they came for my..."

  • Wrong name (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Sin2x ( 1189089 ) on Saturday September 05, 2020 @06:45AM (#60476190)
    It's not Linusgate, it's Debiangate. The signs of their mental decline were present since choosing systemd as the default init system, but now it's just full-blown dementia. RIP. Good thing that Ian is not there to witness the demise of his creation. The end of an era.
  • by DrXym ( 126579 ) on Saturday September 05, 2020 @06:52AM (#60476196)
    Maybe DebConf should arrange safe zones where people who self-identify as victims can go to escape perceived microagressions from speakers. A janitor's closet or something.
    • Maybe DebConf should arrange safe zones where people who self-identify as victims can go to escape perceived microagressions from speakers. A janitor's closet or something.

      I'm thinking they can use the door marked EXIT ONLY.

  • Not Code of Conduct.

  • Link to the talk? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by anarcobra ( 1551067 ) on Saturday September 05, 2020 @07:21AM (#60476266)
    > talk Linus Torvalds gave at the most recent DebConf conference

    Any link to the talk so we can see what this is all about?
    Oh, this is about something that happened 6 years ago and not "the most recent DebConf"?
    What even is the point of linking to debconf if you don't link to specific talk?
    Get your act together.
    • Oh, this is about something that happened 6 years ago and not "the most recent DebConf"?

      I actually think TFA is talking about the recent DebConf and trying to stir up shit by relating it to 6 year old emails. But I mean seriously why should this be a surprise to anyone. Linus despite his genius has an incredibly abrasive personality to anyone or anything that doesn't suit him.

      I mean it's not necessarily good marketing or politically correct to in the middle of a developer conference (not Debian in this case) to simply say fuck NVIDIA and give the finger to the camera.

      There's a reason in many c

      • by sfcat ( 872532 )

        I mean it's not necessarily good marketing or politically correct to in the middle of a developer conference (not Debian in this case) to simply say fuck NVIDIA and give the finger to the camera.

        There's a reason in many cases companies hide behind PR departments and don't let engineers speak to the public. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] :-)

        Right, because people definitely prefer being lied to. He's honest. You can't deal with it because you have thin skin and think you are entitled to force the world to be wrapped in bubble wrap for you. People *hate* PR departments spin. Hate it. Oh, and Musk is an engineer, says hot takes, makes tons of money. Perhaps the PR department and lying to people isn't as necessary as you seem to think it is. Perhaps that's why you get so mad at Linus, he points out all the places folks like you are lying.

    • by ELCouz ( 1338259 )
      That's the one that started all those emails back in 2014. http://meetings-archive.debian... [debian.net]
  • ... Bill Gates turns out to be a pretty awesome guy.
  • A 2014 story resurrected with inflamatory language? How 2020 -- fits in great with the cancel culture narrative. Anyone who believes news reports uncritically whether on the NYTimes or here on /. deserves to be duped. Humans are the apex predator, so some of us prey upon others. Societies are cnstructed to optimize predation. Fake news (fraud) is just one way.

  • by superwiz ( 655733 ) on Saturday September 05, 2020 @08:26AM (#60476380) Journal
    It's hard to imagine that Debian survives unless these people are removed.
  • "Some observers believe that it's a plot by Microsoft to destroy the open source movement from the inside."

    Of course... and it's Bill Gates that's pushing this, because he wants to ask Linus to include 5G support in Linux so it can create a new corona virus. How about everybody stop making up conspiracy theories ?
  • by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Saturday September 05, 2020 @09:52AM (#60476552)

    I get to the whole feelgood bullshit about who says what to whom in my spare time.

    Care to point me to an OS that cares about getting shit done instead of making people feel good? Debian obvious is a goner.

  • by tannhaus ( 152710 ) on Saturday September 05, 2020 @10:57AM (#60476692) Homepage Journal

    Even their controversies take six years to be released to the public....

  • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05, 2020 @11:21AM (#60476732)

    Few people want to watch a 72 minute video so here is a transcription of the part
    relevant to the story.

    http://saimei.ftp.acc.umu.se/p... [acc.umu.se]

    The first 47 minutes are Linus talking about wanting kernel changes to not cause userspace software to
    stop working, a complaint that linux distributions break things and the difficulties involved.

    The part that seems to me to have triggered the CoC complaint starts at 47:20, the
    accusations start at 50minutes.

    Part of the background to this is that a company called Tivo made a digital video recorder,
    the box ran linux but would only run software digitally signed by the company.
    People could get the source code for the software running on the box but could not
    modify their tivo box, no fixing bugs or adding features.

    The FSF wanted people to use a new software license, GPL3, to stop tivoisation

    Linus said he hates GPL3. He understands the reasoning but thinks it should have been
    a new separate license. He said that GPL2 means
    "I give you source code, you give me your changes back, we are even".
    He said GPL3 instead means "I give you source code and you can't use it on your device
    unless you follow my rules" and does not want to impose that condition.

    He said he considered GPL3 to be an attempt to sneak in new rules and did not like that.

    "The FSF did some really sneaky stuff, downright immoral in my opinion."
    Questioner in audience: "You are talking about Tivoisation?"
    Linus: "Yeah, tivoisation was always my main dislike of version 3 and the FSF
    was being very dishonest, saying hey we actually allow you to invalidate the tivoisation clause,
    and and, they tried to, they literally lied to people and said hey so that means that
    you can use GPL3 without the tivoisation part, right, how many people heard that particular
    statement from the FSF? [requests show of hands] Ok, maybe they only tried to convinced me
    with that one, but they did. and it was like, I'm not stupid, yes GPL3 allows you to say
    ok tivoisation is not an issue for us but it allow someone else to take the project and say
    Hey, GPL3 without tivoisation is compatible with the full GPL3 so I will now make
    my own fork of this and I will start doing drivers that use the full version of GPL3
    and where am I am I stuck then, I'm stuck saying Hey, I gave you the source code
    and now I can't take back your changes. That is completely against the whole point of
    the license in the first place.
    The FSF was, I mean, the kind of stuff that was going on behind the scenes made me once
    and for all decide to not have anything to do with the FSF again.

    So if you want to give money to people who do good give it to the EFF, the FSF is
    full of crazy bigoted people, that's just my opinion. Actually [Gesture: hands up don't shoot]
    I overstated that, a bit. The FSF has a lot of nice people in it but some of there
    are a bit too extreme.

    Questioner in audience: "I wish the EFF cared a bit more about software freedom,uh so
    do you think that tivoisation benefits me as a user somehow?

    Linus: No, no I don't but that was never why I selected GPL2, this is my whole point,
    it's not that I think tivoisation is something that you should strive for, it's something
    that in my worldview, it's your decision, if you make hardware that locks down the softwaer
    that is your decision as a hardware maker, that has no impact on my decision as a
    software maker to give you the software, do you see where I am coming from?
    I don't like locked down hardware but at the same time that was never the social
    contract I intended with linux, to me, I mean, people may or may not realise that
    GPL2 was not even the first license for linux, to me the important part was always
    I give you software you can do whatever you want with it, if you make improvements
    you have to give them back, that was the f

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