Bonum Certa Men Certa

Shut Up and Learn to Maintain an Application Suite

Article by YOU Can Call Me "Mr. Developer" Actually, You Can Call Me "SIR Mr. Developer"



Summary: "Try and maintain a complex piece of software like a browser or an office suite, and then you'll understand."

Ah, the good old days... People used to complain, and we would tell them to stop snivelling and learn to code.



Now they pretend that even Free Software can do unethical things. Where do they get these ridiculous ideas?

Free Software can't be unethical. You can always change the code, so PLEASE stop whinging about how it "spies" on you or got your dog pregnant -- we seriously don't care. We are just volunteers.

I know there was this guy -- Shopman? Schtolman? Wait, Torvalds! He used to talk about something like this, but seriously, who codes in a bathrobe?

Google Street View logs WiFi networks, Mac addressesYou never hear Greg talking about that kind of nonsense. I mean, he's too busy coding (and putting on some clothes first.)

But the rest of you, for crying out loud -- just because "stuff happens" on your side and we get "data" about it on our side, doesn't make it "spyware" -- we aren't spies. As I said, we are just volunteers.

You don't understand ethics because you probably don't write any code. I mean you say you do, you even showed us your GitHub repo, but you certainly haven't written any code for us, so we don't expect you to understand.

I don't mean anything by it, you know -- when I laughed at you on Twitter, I didn't say you were "crazy" or "stupid", just LOL. If we can't laugh, that's a serious problem. Then again, so is all this (frankly, very uninformed) whinging.

"But the rest of you, for crying out loud -- just because "stuff happens" on your side and we get "data" about it on our side, doesn't make it "spyware" -- we aren't spies. As I said, we are just volunteers."Sometimes we sell data to Google. It's not YOUR data, it's OUR data. We're the ones who found it. Yes, we wrote code for your browser to send it to us.

You can turn it off, you know. Just go to about:config and click "Yes I'm sure", then agree to the EULA and email us a letter stating that you understand and agree to proper usage of our trademarks, then click "Show All settings" and add the key "browser.surveillance.telemetry.justkidding.spyonusmaybe" and set it to string value "0x3b338912" and we won't send any data in until we think of another way to make you even MORE free.

I don't think you people get why we do this stuff. It's all to help us help YOU. And this is the thanks we get!

When we sell the data, we also put that into helping YOU. But first we print it all out and go at your personal information really firmly with a rubber. Your privacy is totally safe!

Didn't you learn anything when people tried to say that Ubuntu Unity Amazon Lens was spyware? Mark Shuttleworth explained all this, he said that if you trust Canonical with root access then obviously, you're giving them permission to do whatever -- and if you gave them permission, you shouldn't complain. And that's what trust is all about!

So really, we aren't even asking for root access. Just sending some data from your software to our servers which is absolutely and in every way perfectly useless for indicating anything that you're doing in a way that could you know, somehow "track" what you're doing. Just think of it as random numbers, alright? Random numbers that aren't at all important.

"Sometimes we sell data to Google. It's not YOUR data, it's OUR data. We're the ones who found it. Yes, we wrote code for your browser to send it to us."What I'd like to see is any of you whingers and peons try to maintain your own web browser, alright? I mean, it looks easy, but it's really hard work! And then a bunch of uppity know-it-alls -- sorry, I mean you people start talking about "ethics" like we did something wrong! And they you say we are spying on you! We are a non-profit, Hello? EVERYTHING we do is ethical.

Try and maintain a complex piece of software like a browser or an office suite, and then you'll understand.

Until then, PLEASE just shut up already, it's not helping anything. Turn off your computer and go put your tinfoil hats on, but don't bother us with a bunch of silly nonsense. Come back when you want to contribute some code, or help pay for our time, when you've grown up a little.

Thanks!

"Try and maintain a complex piece of software like a browser or an office suite, and then you'll understand."Also, by all means, please feel free to copy and share this with your other loser friends who have nothing better to do than complain all the time.

Yours Sincerely,

Fed Up Developer Tired Of All The Whinging

(Sir Fed Up Developer Tired Of All The Whinging, to you.)

Public Domain

Recent Techrights' Posts

Gemini Links 07/07/2025: BaseLibre Numerical System and TUI Rant
Links for the day
Two Risks to Companies: The Microsoft Culture and the Microsoft Tools
Novell was killed by a form of "social engineering" by Microsoft
It's Hard to Trust People Who Worked - Not Only Those Who Still Work - at Microsoft
Bryan Lunduke is just what people would call an "arsehole of a person"
Links 06/07/2025: Climate Change and "The Right to Criticise"
Links for the day
 
Censorship Versus Fact-Checking and Quality Control
It's not censorship but a matter of quality control
Reinforcing the Allegations Some More, Bryan Lunduke Digs His Own Grave
In his latest episodes he merely repeats his own lies, which I debunked using evidence right from his own mouth
Global Warming and Free Software as a Force of Mitigation
we'll need to think about Software Freedom, not just brands like "Linux"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 06, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 06, 2025
[Video] "Copyleft Isn't a Bug."
"Copyleft isn’t a bug. It’s a feature. GNU GPL forced the world to treat code like a public good."
Being in Social Control Media Means Exposing Oneself to Heckling
Richard Stallman does not (either himself or directly) post to any social control media
Links 06/07/2025: Airlines Perils, Scams, and Breaches
Links for the day
For the Second Time, Bryan Lunduke From Microsoft is Siccing Racist Trolls and Vandals at Me
You're only reinforcing the point we made yesterday
Links 06/07/2025: End to End Encryption at Risk, Reuters Twitter ("X") Account Withheld in India
Links for the day
Gemini Links 06/07/2025: Tinylog and Certification Rotation
Links for the day
PCLinuxOS Sites Coming Back, Gradually
let's just be patient
Social Control Media, Even If Based on Free Software, Still Has Many Problems
a distraction from what actually mattered and still matters
IBM is Not Your Master
IBM makes friends with people who exclude the majority of the population: women
Help Fund the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
If you have some dollars to spare, go support the FSF
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 05, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 05, 2025
A Short History of Attacks on Techrights (and Boycott Novell Before That)
good opportunity to tell again the story of several (not all) attempts to silence us
The Mainstream Media Took 4 Days to Realise Microsoft Shut Down Its Operations in Pakistan and Fired Everybody
We estimate that Microsoft has had about 29,000 layoffs since January
Leadership in Free Software
Don't let IBM lead. It's a terrible flag bearer.
“Twibel” Actions Against Comedians (and Why It's a Truly Low Blow)
they try to make up in quantities for a lack of merit or quality
Linux Foundation Apparently Flirting With Slop (Marketing by LLM-Generated SPAM)
The Web is in a really bad state!
COVID-19 Sped Up Site Improvements in Techrights
A few months later we created our very own IRC network
Gemini Links 05/07/2025: Negative Questions and 'Touching Grass' (Going Outside)
Links for the day
Links 05/07/2025: Dalai Lama Succession as 90th Birthday Approaches, 40 deg C in China
Links for the day
Links 05/07/2025: Hungary and US Defecting to Russia, "Google's Hotseat Hypocrisy"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/07/2025: 4th of July 2025 and "Zig Roadmap 2026"
Links for the day
How to Combat the Exploitation and Abuse by Microsoft GitHub
Not to mention corruption and crimes against women
Bryan Lunduke is Actually Sending His Audience to Attack People
"[Lunduke] is actually sending his audience to attack people."
Even The Right Wing is Rejecting Bryan Lunduke
no wonder he became so irrelevant and marginal
Microsoft's MSN Helps Microsoft Spread Lies About the Layoffs' Scale (Well Over 25,000 People Laid Off This Year)
There seem to be monopolies on lies and on truth
The Death of X Has Been Greatly Exaggerated (by Compromised Media)
X.Org Server is alive and well
Rewriting Things in Rust
How far would you go?
In 2025 Everything is "AI". Remember Blockchains?
Talk about what companies and things (services, products, software) actually do, not the labels they use
Julian Assange Has Been Free for a Year
Julian Assange and I disagreed on some things
Monopolies and Scalping
Monopolies gravitate towards price hikes
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 04, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 04, 2025
Microsoft's August Layoffs Wave: "August is Confirmed for Additional Performance Based Cuts"
"August is confirmed for additional performance based cuts from the recent connects along with additional organizational cuts."
What Microsoft Reputation Laundering (With a Weaponised Law Degree) Looks Like in a Foreign Continent
You would expect this in uncivilised and primitive countries
Slopwatch: LLMs 'Write' Fake or Distorted 'News' About "Linux"
LLM slop disguised as news