From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
Linus' thread: (CW: bigotry and racism in the comments) https://social.kernel.org/notice/AWSXomDbvdxKgOxVAm (you need to scroll down, i can't seem to link to the comment in the screenshot)
Political? For everyone outside of America that's just common sense.
Hello I'm a trans person from the UK here to tell you this is sadly not the case at all.
In Canada it’s starting to become “political” since our morons are egged on by the morons down south.
Outside the US this no longer has to be political, is probably more what it really is.
I can relate to the "how the fuck is being a concerned human being extreme/poltical?" energy in the post hard.
Woman right to choose, fair enough. Regulated guns, absolutely. The less guns the better. Gay people stuff, I couldn't care less. Check.
The man said it as it should be said.
Linus has always been political and principled, I mean he chose the GPL for a reason! Glad to see him state all of this outright though, it only makes me respect him more.
One great thing about about software is you don't have to agree with or care about what the creators thoughts and beliefs are, software is at the end of the day just software.
Doesn't get any less political than that.
I create software by myself and disagree. First it's very political where and for whom I choose to develop software. Second, software is always made for a purpose and the purpose can be indeed (and is) very often linked to political or social cause. E.g. a software which only purpose is to harm people, say for controlling mass destruction weapons is in my point of view a very political software
software is always made for a purpose and the purpose can be indeed (and is) very often linked to political or social cause
Its not though, typically software exists to serve a basic function at its core, and it could be used or contributed to by anyone for any number of things.
You are thinking of software as if it exists in a vacuum. Software that is libre is a political statement. Software that is proprietary is also a political statement. Lemmy choosing to be decentralized/federated/interoperable is also a conscious political decision just as Apple chose to create its own proprietary ecosystem instead of caring about interoperability.
You can grow potatoes for political reasons too. Everything a human being does might be politically motivated, but that doesn't mean potatoes are political.
Anyone can take that same software, that was created as a particular political statement, and use it for the completelly opposite political reasons to make a completelly different political statement. Just the same way as many have used songs in contexts that are completelly politically opposite to what the original author of the song intended.
In the end, the only thing that's political is the goal/purpose/motivation of an action, not the result of the action. No piece of software/hardware/thing is political when you dettach the artist from the art and just see it for what it is, regardless of what the author might have wanted you to see it as.
That's true. It's the human element that creates the political attribute.
I don't see how his, very reasonable, views makes Linux itself (more?) political. What is the point of this post?
I don’t think the title is good, but I do think it’s notable to some extent. With people having weird, shitty opinions, it’s nice to see someone who is relatively famous in the tech community for having somewhat sane opinions and being vocal about it.
In my experience, the Linux community has got its own bunch of free speech weirdos who would reject some of these political points (especially the trans position), so I do think in that context it is kind of important.
Linus gives exactly zero fucks about saying exactly what's on his mind. And it's almost always massively based. He's always been great about that, we don't deserve such a great mind.
Seriously, we are super blessed to have him.
Remember the time with the anti vaxxer, man was firing with all cylinders
Every human opinion is essentially "political" in some way, and is even interpreted differently be country? But open source software as a technology should not be taking any stance for or against gender, guns, rights, race, etc...
Well, it's not any official statement by the Linux Devs as a collective.
It's simply the personal opinion of Linus - who also happens to be the person who created Linux and still manages it.
I half agree with his gun regulation stance. While ideally there would be more caution given to who owns guns that is unfortunately not the world americans have been living in the last 80 years or so. The fascists have guns, lots of them, and I'm not giving mine up while they have them.
Everything else he said is 100% based.
I think fascists is going too far… they’re crazy and dumb, that’s it.
They attempted a violent coup. They're crazy, dumb, and dangerous
Yeah the gun law regulators generally ignore the fact that everyone and their grandma already has guns. And those with guns are not willing to do trade in programs.
I’d like to see better psych eval and requiring to re-license every so often. That should start steering the country in the right direction. Of course I don’t see this happening any time soon.
Well, yeah, fascists having guns is a "randomly giving guns to any moron with a pulse" problem.
Holy shit a based Linus is not what I expected to see today. Makes me prefer Linux even more than I already did.
What would you use for a synonym for based? I keep seeing that used. I always thought it was just some alt-right meme bullshit, but I'm learning I was wrong. I still don't get the use. My mind always thinks "based on what?"
I've never been made happier by one of his rants.
Holy fuck, I love that guy even more now. I didn't know that was possible.
Incredibly sensible take on all accounts in my opinion! I share all of the same opinions, though I lack the platform to be listened too haha.
Based but don't make Linux political
When the only thing that continues to work on you ad-filled web site is the captcha, I’m not interested in supporting your journalism any more.
Protip: You can crash self-driving cars by purposefully misclicking during Captcha checks when they ask you to identify what is a bicycle, a car, a pedestrian, etc. Keep misclicking, your are poisoning the AI with each misclick. Just stay safe on the sidewalk.
Maybe because he's not "American" and comes from a country with regulations like the rest of the world, and people care when they vote to make things work.
And like most of the rest of the world, there are more than two political parties, and is not a drama show.
He has American citizenship and lives in America, he's talking about America here. And I promise you that other countries, yes even those in the magical fantasy land of Europe, also have lots of political drama despite having more than two parties in the government (They tend to form alliances based on left/right and split into two blocks anyway).
I know, im from Europe.
The drama is not compared to USA, we don't vote on celebrities.
In my country we even have a party for the animals and climate, so when USA still trying to vote for basic rights, we already ahead and vote for animal rights and more climate change.
Yeah no, this "America Bad and backwards 3rd world country while us Europeans are so enlightened" circlejerk isn't constructive either. The American political system is terrible but a lot of European countries, mine included, are copying their "celebrity drama show" attitude towards politics because of extreme American cultural influence. We shouldn't deny our own problems.
Hell yeah. I love watching this man take a stance.
Linus delivering the well-deserved beatdown as always.
Linus is stellar example of "good is not nice."
He will rake you over the coals because he cares about quality and expects better from everyone.
Good can be nice. This is just him personally and shouldn't be seen as a guideline on how to be good.
After being disappointed by Steve, Linus lifted my spirits.
All sensible points, nothing extreme, except maybe the Linus trademark super blunt delivery
Linus is based as fuck as always. Level-headed and agreeable as always.