Bonum Certa Men Certa

Systems Can Crash and People Can Die by Changing Language (Even in Parameter and Function Space) to Appease Activists

There are also purely practical considerations to be taken into account (and the worst culprits are Windows people)

Microsoft Apologizes, Removes 'Big Boobs' String From Linux Code
Older: Microsoft Apologizes, Removes 'Big Boobs' String From Linux Code



Summary: It seems clear that Intel takes the lead in trying to change Linux not in technical means but purely social means; even when (and where) that can compromise the robustness of the kernel (Intel is nowadays known for profoundly defective chips with back doors)

MANNERS are a good thing. Being polite is also always preferable. It might not always be possible, but it is preferable.



"The company which commits so many crimes claims to be a source for good, a voice for ethics."It's difficult to forget how people who wrote bad code complained about Torvalds. Eventually he was even 'removed' from the project -- his own 'baby' -- for about a month. Intel played a big role in that. As we've noted before, Intel keeps coming back. The company which commits so many crimes claims to be a source for good, a voice for ethics. Welcome to the brave new world... white is black, black is white.

It's no secret that changing words inside code (not literature) can complicate things, break things, become an expensive development venture and even cause systems to fail/break down (unexpectedly). Some mission-critical systems (aviation, hospitals and disaster recovery) are also impacted. It's an endless adventure; you'll never please everyone. Just taking the latest article from Phoronix, it says "A.k.a. Spectre, Meltdown, etc." and we all know what "Spectre" is to "Master" and what "Meltdown" is to people with mental health issues [1].

Should we remove all mentions of these terms as well? Where does it end? By the way, slavery is not a thing of the past but a thing of the present. Many Africans are still enslaved by fellow Africans and many are sold as slaves. Deleting particular words may make it harder to explain the problem, which is still ongoing (see the UN's Web site).

"Remember how Intel viciously attacked children's education in Africa."The other morning coverage in Phoronix says there's an effort wherein "Linux Kernel [is] Preparing New Guidelines For Using Inclusive Terminology" (included in circulation are two people from the Linux Foundation, one from Intel, another from Facebook and lastly one from Google). To quote Michael Larabel: "The exception being granted though is where changing the terminology could potentially break the user-space ABI given the kernel's longstanding guarantees on not breaking that interface." (Many comments on this, 54 as of this morning, with more noteworthy comments -- 21 of them so far -- in CNX Software under "New Tech Vocabulary for 2020 Could Break Software Compatibility")

Not many have mentioned the aspect of debugging being necessary (if not rewriting of software units, followed by a lot of testing). It can also harm backward compatibility and thus increase electronic waste, harming the environment. We all know that a lot of electronic waste (basically Western trash) is being shipped to Africa, outsourcing the pollution to 'lesser' races, right? So much for justice...

Looking at the original, however, and bearing in mind what some Intel employees already did to sanitise Linux (see "New Patch Replaces F-Words in Linux Kernel Code with “Hug”) while Intel became speech police in the whole project, this is what we have from Intel's Dan Williams ([PATCH] CodingStyle: Inclusive Terminology):

Recent events have prompted a Linux position statement on inclusive terminology. Given that Linux maintains a coding-style and its own idiomatic set of terminology here is a proposal to answer the call to replace non-inclusive terminology.

Cc: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net> Cc: Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> Signed-off-by: Chris Mason <clm@fb.clm> Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org> Signed-off-by: Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@intel.com> --- Documentation/process/coding-style.rst | 12 ++++ Documentation/process/inclusive-terminology.rst | 64 +++++++++++++++++++++++ Documentation/process/index.rst | 1 3 files changed, 77 insertions(+) create mode 100644 Documentation/process/inclusive-terminology.rst

diff --git a/Documentation/process/coding-style.rst b/Documentation/process/coding-style.rst index 2657a55c6f12..4b15ab671089 100644 --- a/Documentation/process/coding-style.rst +++ b/Documentation/process/coding-style.rst @@ -319,6 +319,18 @@ If you are afraid to mix up your local variable names, you have another problem, which is called the function-growth-hormone-imbalance syndrome. See chapter 6 (Functions).

+For symbol names, avoid introducing new usage of the words 'slave' and +'blacklist'. Recommended replacements for 'slave' are: 'secondary', +'subordinate', 'replica', 'responder', 'follower', 'proxy', or +'performer'. Recommended replacements for blacklist are: 'blocklist' or +'denylist'. + +Exceptions for introducing new usage is to maintain a userspace ABI, or +when updating code for an existing (as of 2020) hardware or protocol +specification that mandates those terms. For new specifications consider +translating specification usage of the terminology to the kernel coding +standard where possible. See :ref:`process/inclusive-terminology.rst +<inclusiveterminology>` for details.

5) Typedefs ----------- diff --git a/Documentation/process/inclusive-terminology.rst b/Documentation/process/inclusive-terminology.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..a8eb26690eb4 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/process/inclusive-terminology.rst @@ -0,0 +1,64 @@ +.. _inclusiveterminology: + +Linux kernel inclusive terminology +================================== + +The Linux kernel is a global software project, and in 2020 there was a +global reckoning on race relations that caused many organizations to +re-evaluate their policies and practices relative to the inclusion of +people of African descent. This document describes why the 'Naming' +section in :ref:`process/coding-style.rst <codingstyle>` recommends +avoiding usage of 'slave' and 'blacklist' in new additions to the Linux +kernel. + +On the triviality of replacing words +==================================== + +The African slave trade was a brutal system of human misery deployed at +global scale. Some word choice decisions in a modern software project +does next to nothing to compensate for that legacy. So why put any +effort into something so trivial in comparison? Because the goal is not +to repair, or erase the past. The goal is to maximize availability and +efficiency of the global developer community to participate in the Linux +kernel development process. + +Word choice and developer efficiency +==================================== + +Why does any software project go through the trouble of developing a +document like :ref:`process/coding-style.rst <codingstyle>`? It does so +because a common coding style maximizes the efficiency of both +maintainers and developers. Developers learn common design patterns and +idiomatic expressions while maintainers can spot deviations from those +norms. Even non-compliant whitespace is considered a leading indicator +to deeper problems in a patchset. Coding style violations are known to +take a maintainer "out of the zone" of reviewing code. Maintainers are +also sensitive to word choice across specifications and often choose to +deploy Linux terminology to replace non-idiomatic word-choice in a +specification. + +Non-inclusive terminology has that same distracting effect which is why +it is a style issue for Linux, it injures developer efficiency. + +Of course it is around this point someone jumps in with an etymological +argument about why people should not be offended. Etymological arguments +do not scale. The scope and pace of Linux to reach new developers +exceeds the ability of historical terminology defenders to describe "no, +not that connotation". The revelation of 2020 was that black voices were +heard on a global scale and the Linux kernel project has done its small +part to answer that call as it wants black voices, among all voices, in +its developer community. + +Really, 'blacklist' too? +======================== + +While 'slave' has a direct connection to human suffering the etymology +of 'blacklist' is devoid of a historical racial connection. However, one +thought exercise is to consider replacing 'blacklist/whitelist' with +'redlist/greenlist'. Realize that the replacement only makes sense if +you have been socialized with the concepts that 'red/green' implies +'stop/go'. Colors to represent a policy requires an indirection. The +socialization of 'black/white' to have the connotation of +'impermissible/permissible' does not support inclusion. + +Inclusion == global developer community efficiency. diff --git a/Documentation/process/index.rst b/Documentation/process/index.rst index f07c9250c3ac..ed861f6f8d25 100644 --- a/Documentation/process/index.rst +++ b/Documentation/process/index.rst @@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ Below are the essential guides that every developer should read. submitting-patches programming-language coding-style + inclusive-terminology maintainer-pgp-guide email-clients kernel-enforcement-statement


Notice the mention of 'redlist/greenlist'; we've already mentioned why that too can be interpreted as "racist". It's a never-ending game and nuance brought to such 'overdrive' (oversensitivity) means no good will come out of it. Richard Stallman has just remarked on the word "whitening" being phased out (even when it literally means just that, e.g. dental products).

"Intel is using black people (exploiting legitimate race grievances) to socially-engineer and interject disruption into a project it cannot control because of the GPL."There aren't many African contributors in Linux not because of the language but because African nations are poor and lack access to particular computing resources (sometimes Internet connections as well). Maybe focus on those latter issues before obsessing over the colour of some alert or a rule? Companies like Intel would rather have us speaking/bickering about race issues than class/wealth issues. Remember how Intel viciously attacked children's education in Africa. All in the name of profit! Intel is using black people (exploiting legitimate race grievances) to socially-engineer and interject disruption into a project it cannot control because of the GPL.

Related/contextual items from the news:



  1. New readfile() System Call Under Review For Reading Small~Medium Files Faster

    Besides readfile() being simpler, the other intended use-case is for helping in performance due to less system calls. Greg does note that utilizing readfile should help performance, especially due to "syscall overheads go up over time due to various CPU bugs being addressed." A.k.a. Spectre, Meltdown, etc.

    The readfile system call review is in this kernel thread. Hopefully it will be reviewed punctually and well to possibly make it into the Linux 5.9 cycle next month.

  2. Linux Kernel Preparing New Guidelines For Using Inclusive Terminology

    The new inclusive terminology documentation applies to new code being contributed to the Linux kernel but ultimately in hopes of replacing existing code with words deemed not inclusive. The exception being granted though is where changing the terminology could potentially break the user-space ABI given the kernel's longstanding guarantees on not breaking that interface.

    These new guidelines for Linux kernel developers call for initially avoiding words including "slave" and "blacklist" to instead use words like subordinate, replica, follower, performer, blocklist, or denylist.



Recent Techrights' Posts

Sloppy Reporting About Slop, or How The Register MS Lowers Its Standards
Maybe the management isn't even aware of this
IBM's Strategy: Cull 'Expensive' Workers, Replace Them With Cheaper Ones
So far we saw not even one rebuttal or challenge to the claim of Red Hat layoffs scheduled for tomorrow
The Goal of Coopetition Assumes You're Friends
it will never work with Microsoft
Seductive Mirage or Allure of Complex, Proprietary Coffee Machines (or Similar White Elephants)
Software is a lot like those things
Hate Mail From Anonymous Cowards
if this persists, we'll need to escalate
 
Sometimes Newer is Worse
We generally need to reject this dumb notion that "old" means bad
The Code Used to Make Techrights Fits on a Seventh of a Floppy Disk (or 100KB When Compressed)
For the sake of comparison I've just downloaded the latest version of WordPress. The ZIP file is 27.2MB in size, or ~27,200KB.
What They Tell Young Programmers
Coding in 2025
Simpler is Better When Simple is Enough
Over-complicating things to "sell" new versions is so 1990s
Links 10/08/2025: From Social Control Media to Prison, New Examples of Windows TCO
Links for the day
If You Attack Somebody Too Much You Legitimise and Strengthen That Somebody
at the end those attacks add up to a "martyr" status
The Man Who Helped Microsoft Kill Linux is Trying to Delay Our Lawsuits Against Him
By conservative estimates, and based on court documents submitted by them, they're prepared to spend over a million dollars on lawyers, fighting against me and my wife
Gemini Links 10/08/2025: Gen Con 2025 and Framework Laptop
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, August 09, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, August 09, 2025
The Register MS (Microsoft) or The Register AI (Slop)?
What a slopfest!
Is Red Hat About to Give the Boot to GNOME People Who Helped Microsoft 'Secure' (Monopolised) Boot?
It was always a dumb idea to play along with Microsoft's hardware mischief
Sales of Windows on PCs (Windows Licences) Go Down
Microsoft has a big problem in its hands
The Hype That Microsoft and The Register MS (Among Others) Promote Helps Stage DDoS Attacks on Free Software Sites
Microsoft is, to put it bluntly, pure evil
Links 09/08/2025: Putin Allegedly to Visit Alaska (Which He Deems Part of Russia), Mike Tyson Sued for Copyright Infringement
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, LinuxSecurity, and Google News With Its Slopfarms of Choice
SEO spam, made with LLMs
Follow the Money: The Register MS Gets Paid to Promote "Hey Hi" Ponzi Scheme/Hype, Some Fake 'Articles' Might Be Composed by LLMs Already
paid to promote slop
Gemini Links 09/08/2025: Rethinking Aliases and Posting on Gopher vs. the Web
Links for the day
Links 09/08/2025: Apollo 13 Astronaut Jim Lovell Dies, Slop Future Bleak
Links for the day
After Shutting Down Studios, Divisions, Applications (e.g. Skype) Microsoft is Also Shutting Down 'Apps'
Cuts all around as layoffs persist this month, Microsoft tries to get many people to resign, and debt skyrockets
Most of Geminispace Can Probably Fit on a CD-ROM or a DVD (the Textual Part)
If one excludes very large capsules and ones that contain non-textual contenty
Eventually UEFI 'Secure Boot' Will be Dropped (Users Will Demand Its Removal and Boycott Its Pushers)
we expect OEMs will just listen to users
The Register MS: We Know Slop is a Bubble and Mindless Hype, But We Get Paid to Participate
Call out the culprits
There Are Probably Over a Million Pages in Geminispace
there are two many limitations which merit a mention when it comes to assessing magnitude
Informal Open Letter to the Lawyer of the Microsofters (on Who's Funding the SLAPPs Against Techrights)
Whenever I ask about the funding they try to change the subject and act all aggressive
Microsoft Lunduke is Just Provoking People for Provocation's Sake
Be forewarned and remember where this guy came from: Microsoft
Besieged by Plagiarists Who Play With LLMs and Image Fusions
We really need to exercise or use our collective voice to oppose Serial Sloppers
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, August 08, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, August 08, 2025
Gemini Links 09/08/2025: Water Painting and Political Violence
Links for the day
Slopwatch: LLM Sloppers in Google News, LinuxSecurity, and More
they also perpetuate some falsehoods as the LLMs lack any comprehension
Links 08/08/2025: China King of Plastics and US Dictator Plans to Meet Russian Dictator
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/08/2025: Cracking a Family Member's Password and Overdose of Slop
Links for the day
Red Hat's Latest Talent Hunt, Day Ahead of Mass Layoffs, is Yet Another Microsoft Executive
Red Hat will apparently commence mass layoffs early this coming Monday
Links 08/08/2025: "Quit Facebook" and High Cost of Microsoft/Windows Shown Again ("BlackSuit")
Links for the day
Good Morning, Readers of The Register MS
Things The Register MS could (but does not) cover this morning
Why Gemini Protocol Has a Bright Future
Maybe Gemini Protocol's promise becomes more appealing as the Web turns to slop and bloat
It's a Lot Easier to Participate in the Unethical System Than to Oppose Injustices in It
Going after powerful and high-budget interests is never easy
Microsofters Filed Two SLAPPs Against Us, Now They Cannot Keep Up With Judges' Orders
For over 4 months already their facilitator in London has been under investigation by British authorities because of what's being done to my wife and I
Censorship Regarding Red Hat Layoffs
Talk about this? They'd rather not.
Struggling to Cut Costs, Microsoft Continues Shutting Down and Cancelling Stuff This Month
There are August layoffs at Microsoft
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 07, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, August 07, 2025
Fake 'Linux' Articles, Written by Bots to Take Traffic Away From Real Articles
LLM slop helps replace information with junk or misinformation
When Google's Googlebombing of "Gemini" Was Not Enough; They Now Also Googlebomb "Gemini Space"?
We know GAFAM not only worries about Gemini Protocol but also attempts to 'infiltrate' Geminispace
The Register MS Promotes Microsoft Slop, Assumes All Readers Use Microsoft Windows
Microsoft really dominates the site
Gemini Links 08/08/2025: KDE/Qt Development and What's Missing From "Retro"
Links for the day