Bonum Certa Men Certa

Daniel Lange and Debian, Aggression and Hypocrisy in Focus

Reprinted with permission from Debian Community News

This blog follows up on the earlier report about Daniel Lange, who was accused of aggression but accepted into Debian anyway at almost the same time Jacob Appelbaum was expelled.



We quote the following two emails from the debian-private (leaked) gossip network, little comment is needed to see the hypocrisy at work inside Debian.



This one was sent in August 2016, a discussion of Appelbaum's code contributions to Debian. This is a distraction: it is important to remember that people also make contributions when they spend time preparing a speech, mentoring other volunteers or writing bug reports. The contributors report for Appelbaum gives a much bigger history of his contributions, although that is tangential to the point of this blog post. The key point in this email is not the contributions, rather, it is the assertion that contributions should not be a factor when evaluating accusations of abuse:



Subject: Re: What is true and what is false in accusations against Jacob Appelbaum
Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2016 17:19:11 +0200
From: Jérémy Bobbio <lunar@debian.org>
To: debian-private@lists.debian.org

Andreas Tille:

> > We know for sure that his contributions to Debian are non-existent.

>
> Very quick and incomplete research:
>
> udd=# select count(*) from upload_history where maintainer = 'Jacob Appelbaum <jacob@appelbaum.net>' ;
> count
> -------
> 20
>
> 20 Uploads are definitely not much but do not fit my definittion
> for "non-existent".

Please, stop using contributions as a criteria when discussing abusers. We should not tolerate abuses, even when done by “very important people”.



I feel the need to restate that to create a healthy community, it's likely more useful to focus on preventing abuses and empowering victims than judging abusers.



Daniel Lange, Debian, DebConf, aggressive, disrespectful

This one had been sent a few weeks before that. It emphasizes Daniel Lange's contributions to DebConf, a substantial effort that many people don't have time for.



Subject: [Daniel Lange] Do some public considerations for newmaint application, good way to proceed?
Date: Sun, 26 Jun 2016 19:42:26 -0400
From: Tiago Bortoletto Vaz <tiago@debian.org>
To: debian-private@lists.debian.org

... snip ...

I witnessed aggressive and disrespectful behavior from Daniel against a person very close to me, both written and in person, during Debconf15. As he was not a member/whatever of the Debian community I decided to let it go. Besides that, I think he was quite harmful during the storm against the Debconf chairs. But it may be more a personal opinion.



I'm aware that he's doing a lot of work for Debconf and I'm not objecting to his application. But I'll just feel bad if I say nothing at this time.




Lange's work for DebConf was emphasized and it appears that it was more important to Debian than the accusations of aggression. This contradicts the attitude to Appelbaum. As far as we know, neither Daniel Lange or Jacob Appelbaum has been investigated by police, charged or convicted of any crime.



Erinn Clark, defamation, character attacks

We previously disclosed that Erinn Clark was one of the outspoken women pushing for Debian to make a public attack on Jacob Appelbaum. During the discussion of Daniel Lange, there was radio silence from Clark. Was her strong stance on aggression based on principles, or mere politics?



For justice to be fair, it must be the same system of justice for everybody. Some people in Debian make an enormous effort on the Reproducible Builds project, to ensure two builds of the same source file will always produce the same binary. They express concern that if every build produces a slightly different binary, there is a risk that an attacker could place hidden code in a binary and it would be harder to detect. Why don't we see the same adherence to reproducibility in Debian membership processes?



Reproducible Builds, hypocrisy, Debian, jacob appelbaum, error

Recent Techrights' Posts

Before the OSI Was Bribed and Hijacked by Microsoft via GitHub and Compromised Management...
The OSI isn't even remotely "woke"
The OSI Has Been Silent for Over 3 Weeks, It Has a Severe Trust Issue After Promoting Microsoft and Proprietary GitHub
OSI took a lot of money from Microsoft to become a Microsoft lobbyist
Bribery is OK If You Work for Microsoft (No Punishment Expected)
It's very troubling and a symptom of a broken society/system when particular laws or rules are applied and enforced against some people but not against others
Someone Should Remind Microsoft Lunduke That Microsoft Hires Many Sexual Criminals and Pedophiles as Well
Microsoft Lunduke on an "expedition" to find one or more perverts, then generalise to everyone in the "community"
Cash Machines (ATMs) Make Mistakes and They're Proprietary Software
Correcting mistakes is a colossal challenge
Yes, Microsoft is the Problem
"I am no MS shill."
Another Failed Use Case for Chatbots (LLM): Legal Advice and Analysis
They're just some self-discrediting toy that costs way too much to operate
 
PCLinuxOS Had Functional Backups Before the House Fire, the Site Will be Restored in New Webhost
This is the direction we want for GNU/Linux, not some IBM sales strategy
Gemini Links 30/07/2025: Two Sides of Me and "Hooked on Cosmic Voyage"
Links for the day
Microsoft Will Continue Resorting to Crimes in Order to Keep GNU/Linux Usage Down
It is a real problem and we'll revisit it later this week
GAFAM 'Revolving Doors' at The Register and a "Bribe Price List"
"an analyst at Microsoft"
Microsoft Rapidly Shrinking (No, It's Not About Efficiency, It's About Unbearable Debt)
We'll soon see how much debt grew in the past quarter
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 29, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 29, 2025
Corruption is the Standard Operating Procedure at the European Patent Office (EPO)
The EPO is a dictatorship that stains Europe
Local Staff Committee Munich (LSCMN) at the European Patent Office (EPO) Requests an Urgent Meeting to Avoid Abolishing the Office
This is dictatorship led by the most corrupt
Slopwatch: Fake 'Linux' 'Articles' and Spamfarms/Slopfarms
at least 5 fake articles in one day
Gemini Links 29/07/2025: Wayland Unfit for Use and LLM Slop Faking One's Language Skills With Robot Communications
Links for the day
Nailing the "Hey Hi" (AI) Hype Bubble
So-called "hey hi" as they define it now is all about large companies or regimes remotely controlling the processes running on your machine and even your very own behaviour on your machine, which is in effect no longer your machine but some remotely controlled apparatus
"Four decades; Four freedoms; For all users" Now as a T-shirt
That's shown along the sidebar
Links 29/07/2025: Bad Climate and "Fair Software Licensing" Blasts Microsoft
Links for the day
Links 29/07/2025: Data Brokers Gone Wrong/Rogue and "Copyright Thicket"
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Linuxconfig.org, Linuxsecurity.com, Fagioli, The Register
Today's "Slopwatch" isn't the first article about LLM slop
We Cover Topics Other Sites Are Too Afraid to Cover (Even When They Know the Facts)
It's not that they doubt the truth, they just realise there may be consequences for talking about it
They Try to Tell Us the Free Software Foundation Inc is Dying, But Its Revenue Doubled Since the Dot-Com Bubble Burst
Being in "Activism" is never easy; but it does positive things for society
It's About the Cost of Workers, Not the Fictional Skills Shortage (That Does Not Exist, the Media Spreads False and Sometimes Self-Fulfilling Narratives)
This issue isn't limited to computing, some dub it "globalism"
Links 29/07/2025: More Pushbacks Against Slop and More Praises of Tom Lehrer
Links for the day
Gemini Links 29/07/2025: Purple Yarrow and Understanding Op Amps
Links for the day
This Monday WebProNews Absolutely Flooded the Web With Fake (LLM Slop) 'Articles' About "Linux", Google News Promoted Them as Legitimate
All of the following are fake articles attributed to pseudonyms or authors that don't exist; the images are also slop. Why does Google promote these?
Linuxiac is Not a Slopfarm, But at Least Some of Its Articles Are Machine-Generated Fakes
what we said about it was correct
Expect More Microsoft Layoffs
"Are more job cuts coming?"
Microsoft Behaving Like It's Running Out of Money to Pay Salaries
Does that seem like the behaviour expected from a company which claims it is "worth" trillions?
LWN Downtime Due to Linode, Not LLM Bots
"I’ve received an email letting me know that there is a potential for data loss."
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 28, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 28, 2025
Nonfree Software in My Bank, by Richard Stallman
Updated 8 hours ago
Links 28/07/2025: Science, Health, and Conflicts
Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/07/2025: Healthy Self-Image With Autism and a "New Life"
Links for the day
Links 28/07/2025: COVID-19 Sped up Brain Aging, "Circumvention is More Popular Than Compliance"
Links for the day
Richard Stallman is Usually Right Because He Thinks "Outside the Box"
he is able to observe society (mores and norms) as somewhat of an outsider
LWN Has Been Down for a Long Time, Another Casualty of LLM Bots?
Time will tell. How much time though?
Slopfarms Versus 'Linux' (and Against People Who Write Real Articles About GNU/Linux)
LLM slop in slopfarms by Brian Fagioli and Redazione RHC
Gemini Links 28/07/2025: Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray and Running pkgsrc in a FreeBSD Jail
Links for the day
Microsoft Turns News Sites Into Spamfarms
Is the site The Register MS the next IDG?
The Register MS/The Register US
On Saturday I contacted them for a comment (before issuing criticism)
Hacking revelations at Vatican Jubilee of Digital Missionaries
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 27, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 27, 2025