SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Linux 4.19-rc4 Released As Linus Temporarily Steps Away From Kernel Maintainership
Linux 4.19-rc4 is out today as the very latest weekly development test kernel for Linux 4.19. It's another fairly routine kernel update at this stage, but more shocking is that Linus Torvalds will be taking a temporary leave from kernel maintainership and Greg Kroah-Hartman will take over the rest of the Linux 4.19 cycle.
Following the recent decision to change the location of the Linux Kernel Summit after Torvalds accidentally booked his flights to the wrong dates/location, plus other discussions happening recently, Linus Torvalds is taking a temporary leave. "I am going to take time off and get some assistance on how to understand people's emotions and respond appropriately," he wrote as part of today's 4.19-rc4 announcement.
So it begins.
Also at ZDNet.
The Linux kernel has adopted a new code of conduct. The link to the code of conduct is here.
It seems Linus Torvalds is also taking a break from being the top kernel maintainer.
The short story is Linus screwing up his scheduling to the Linux maintainers conference which was entirely rescheduled around his mistake. Then he was approached by people who are concerned about his blunt (or some consider rude) comments on the kernel dev mailing list.
I, personally, will miss Linus and I hope he gets things figured out.
Linux kernel firebrand Linus Torvalds has apologized for his explosive rants, and vowed to take a break from the open-source project and seek help.
In a mailing list message on Sunday, Torvalds admitted his "flippant attacks in emails" to fellow Linux programmers and project contributors "have been both unprofessional and uncalled for. Especially at times when I made it personal ... I know now this was not OK and I am truly sorry."
"I need to change some of my behavior," he added, "and I want to apologize to the people that my personal behavior hurt and possibly drove away from kernel development entirely."
Torvalds, who created the Linux operating system kernel in 1991 and has overseen its development ever since, also promised to take a breather from the project – like the sabbatical he took to create Git – and do some self-reflection to, well, be nicer to everyone.
Elon Musk was in the news recently for blowups, as well. Should technology professionals make stress management and interpersonal skills part of their professional regimen, for their own long-term personal and professional health?
Original Submission #1 Original Submission #2 Original Submission #3
(Score: 5, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday September 17 2018, @12:26PM (16 children)
I don't think my own two are sufficient for a facepalm of this magnitude.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @01:23PM (3 children)
Why would you facepalm, you weren't the one forcing a conference to reschedule around your schedule?
Or are you commenting on the change from the meritocracy "code of conflict" to the millennial "code of conduct" ??
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday September 17 2018, @02:11PM (2 children)
You need to ask? I didn't think I was that difficult of a read.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by aristarchus on Monday September 17 2018, @06:46PM (1 child)
I think it was this part that was being referenced:
With the analogy being, someone has driven some people away from SoylentNews entirely. So when do we learn that TMB is taking a break to seek help?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday September 17 2018, @07:37PM
When you find someone willing and able to take care of things while I'm gone. And s/help/catfish/
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by PiMuNu on Monday September 17 2018, @02:53PM (11 children)
If good developers are walking away because they just don't need the hassle, then that can't be a good thing. The good ones can choose a job they enjoy, if management makes the job not-enjoyable then they walk.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday September 17 2018, @03:32PM (4 children)
Or looked at from another perspective, good developers are the ones who don't cause strife in the workplace. How much trouble you cause your employer vs. your value to your employer is a very important ratio. Standard variety assholes or professionally offended assholes, only the amount of strife you cause in the workplace matters for that calculation.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday September 17 2018, @04:23PM (2 children)
Agreed, however my experience has been that management has kept the a-holes in place. I surmise it's because the a-holes gave management something to do, quarrels to deal with, someone to lord over, and maybe they break up the boredom(?). If everyone got along and did their jobs, management would have to find something useful to do, and that could be even worse. [shudders]
(Score: 3, Funny) by urza9814 on Monday September 17 2018, @06:22PM (1 child)
Of course management keeps themselves in place... ;)
(Score: 3, Funny) by RS3 on Monday September 17 2018, @08:34PM
And so, recursive programming was born.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Gaaark on Monday September 17 2018, @09:01PM
That's why I go in, do my job to the best I can, and I go home COMPLETELY avoiding as much of the DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA there is.
It's kind of like here: when stupid shit is going on, I just usually do a mental walk by, whistling as I go: show up, try to comment intelligently or insightfully or humourously, and I go home.
Sometimes getting sucked into all the drama can suck.
...
...
...
Sometimes it's fun, though. :)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 5, Interesting) by choose another one on Monday September 17 2018, @06:40PM (4 children)
Well, historically it hasn't been "good developers" who have got the hassle from Linus, it's been the lousy ones.
Has there ever been a time when Linus chewed someone out and he was actually in the wrong (from a technical point of view) - I am not absolutely 100% sure, but was there a time when Linus was wrong and failed to apologise afterwards? I really really really doubt that, and I don't know the guy other than through reading a little of what he has written since 1991.
Linus is clearly a technical perfectionist superstar developer, and that is about it. Really good developers will prefer working under a technical perfectionist because they want to create something decent and they will put up with a lot of personal interaction skills deficit for that. The "churn it out and fuck off early"s will not like it, too bad, the technical perfectionist won't like them either - so whose fault is it (I know who I'd say)?
There is a reason why almost every technical corporate management structure has a line-management reporting line separate from technical - it's for managing all the non-technical s**t. Technical people are rarely any good at this and frankly as a corporate you don't want them doing it because it pisses them off and wastes time and therefore money that could have been better spent on technical stuff that you employed them for. I've met/worked-with/hired/managed local superstar developers - people who produce code at least an order of magnitude faster than "normal" while also producing cleaner more legible code with way lower bug count than normal. I've _never_ met one who was also a good people person, and I reckon Linus is at least an order of magnitude better again than those local superstars. Linuses are really really rare, but if you want a Linus who is also a good people person you can forget it - you'd be better off looking for rocking horse sh*t.
Thing about volunteer open source development is that there isn't a non-technical management reporting line, at all, there is no HR dept., there is no one to whinge to if some of your colleagues are being "unprofessional" to each other (because they are lacking personal interaction skills or are weird in some way, like, well, just about every developer I've met, me included). There is only Linus, and he _doesn't_ _care_ - because it is irrelevant to the technical perfection that is his goal, and he _shouldn't_ care because it distracts him from the technical perfection that we want him to create.
This isn't anything new - just found an article from 2015 that basically says exactly what I am trying to say: https://www.computerworld.com/article/3004387/it-management/how-bad-a-boss-is-linus-torvalds.html [computerworld.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Monday September 17 2018, @07:23PM (2 children)
After looking around at various complaints on HN [ycombinator.com], the argument seems to be that the other maintainers lower on the totem pole are hostile, and that Linus's attitude has created the hostile environment. i.e. it doesn't matter if Linus is a saint chewing out people who deserve it.
Though if you go [twitter.com] a little [twitter.com] further [twitter.com], you would think that Linus is the Great Satan or the Toxic Avenger.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @05:15AM
Christ, save us from those people!
(Score: 2) by exaeta on Wednesday September 26 2018, @04:39PM
I would challenge prohibitions on 'hostile work environments' under the First Amendment.
I imagine these regulations will burn to the ground.
The Government is a Bird
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Thursday September 20 2018, @08:26AM
> Well, historically it hasn't been "good developers" who have got the hassle from Linus, it's been the lousy ones.
Not quite - good developers screw up too. I know some people who would take it personally and walk away.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday September 20 2018, @03:22PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 5, Interesting) by takyon on Monday September 17 2018, @12:44PM (44 children)
Does the Code of Conduct mean that Linus can't generically insult people for bad code? Probably not.
Will Linus come back refreshed and "emotionally sensitive" after his little vacation? Probably.
Of course, it could be more sinister. As one commenter [phoronix.com] put it, "What dirt do they have on Linus?"
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @01:26PM (29 children)
It's a corporate takeover, plain and simple.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by VLM on Monday September 17 2018, @02:33PM (28 children)
That was systemd
Not really sure what the point is of running linux in 2018 other than "I love corporate support". Everyone who isn't a tech company already moved or is moving to freebsd and friends. "Linux, well, thats kinda like freebsd but a shittier OS design and big corporations, kinda like AIX or Ultrix in the 90s" "Oh you don't remember AIX or Ultrix, cool now you understand the position of Linux in 2018".
(Score: 5, Informative) by Pino P on Monday September 17 2018, @03:33PM (2 children)
FreeBSD's code of conduct [freebsd.org] is even more full of identity-politics buzzwords than the Contributor Covenant 1.4 [contributor-covenant.org], which Linux has just adopted as its code of conduct.
(Score: 3, Touché) by VLM on Monday September 17 2018, @09:01PM (1 child)
On the ground, their SJW infestation isn't as bad, however.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @05:17AM
That's because FreeBSD doesn't have as much funding as Linux to leech off of.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Pino P on Monday September 17 2018, @03:38PM (16 children)
"Corporate support" is a big plus if you want to ensure that the operating system in GUI configuration is compatible with a wide range of hardware, such as compact laptops. Sometimes it takes corporate negotiating power to gain access to datasheets and other documentation required to support a particular chipset, peripheral, etc.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @09:14PM (15 children)
I care about Free Software. Most of these corporations are categorically opposed to Free Software, even if they pretend otherwise. This is shown when they refuse to release source code and continue developing abusive proprietary software.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday September 18 2018, @12:12AM (14 children)
A free software I can't use due to a missing device driver is no software for me - as such it can't be 'Free Software's even when it's free.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Pav on Tuesday September 18 2018, @04:47AM (8 children)
Ummm... Linux became popular for reasons, and the top reason was that it was free software... SPECIFICALLY GPL. Linux was inferior in a multitude of ways (including less hardware support) and yet its growth was exponential. I remember the usenet talk from veterans of the Unix Wars pro Linux and against BSD... that BSD allowed commercial entities to pilfer, embrace, extend and close code.
In my opinion, despite early ineffectual crying for Linux guys to stop, the commercial world adapted and (mostly) won. Linux nerds have fragile egos and are politically and financially naive - that's a big attack surface to "arrange" for them to accidentally lose the power their community had accidentally won. Sure, systemd is a recent part of that (ie. there's now a monopoly-controlled massive-and-evolving API at the root of the OS), but IMHO it started much earlier.
I place it in 1998. The whole Halloween Document scare turned the movement a little limbic, and away from the grand goal of opening I.T toooooo... well... beating the sh*t out of Big Bad Microsoft... Microsoft seemed so dangerous and powerful back then. Part of beating Microsoft was making bigger and better Microsofts, and of course BSD is better for that because you keep the ability to close source... oh look, Apple!!! Oh, and FYI, if you keep stuff on the net you can get around GPL2!!! Go Google, go Amazon... remember when they were the good guys?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Tuesday September 18 2018, @05:37AM (7 children)
I don't deny GPL was a factor (I won't contest even a "the main factor" claim if you wish to table it), but the fact that it had more supported hardware than BSD helped as well.
Because being able to use it is a necessary condition for user base growth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Pav on Tuesday September 18 2018, @09:16AM (6 children)
Eh? You're talking relatively recent history when Linux included DRM code into the kernel (the interwebs say that happened in 2008). Before then much of the graphics code was shared between the BSDs and Linux,. The lead Linux had happened WAY before despite BSD having a head start. As for hardware support I remember Linux only supporting ONE network card... imagine that! If there is any reason Linux won that could compete with the GPL hypothesis it COULD have been the uncertainty around BSDs legal status, but I don't remember too much of that kind of talk outside of how it could secondarily effect Linux (as some important userspace code was shared, especially in the early days).
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday September 18 2018, @11:20AM (3 children)
I'm talking about early 2000, when I could call linux a stable platform for development; you needed to carefully pick your video, network and perhaps sound card for the new computer to get your X and desktop working beyond 800x600. Switched from Slackware to RedHat Linux then Fedora about that time.
Earlier was even more a problem, but then Linux was a totally geek targeted system - compiling the kernel from new source packages was the way to upgrade. 1995 and it wasn't uncommon to get your sources on floppies, or use ftpmail with sunsite.unc.edu or ftp.funet.fi; and you'd need to edit the monitor frequencies in xorg.conf by hand and try again. But yeah, anything to get to play XBill.
Good old ne2000 standard, eh? (actually, there were more cards from different manufacturers, but all that were supported had adopted ne2000 as a spec)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday September 18 2018, @10:46PM (2 children)
Oh gods... Why did you have to bring up ne2000 cards? I'd almost completely purged the pathways to access those memories from my brain and now I have to start all over.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday September 19 2018, @12:03AM (1 child)
Come on, Buzz, time to come to terms with the issue.
Those cards were so ubiquitous at the time, they became an integral part of any Linux user psyche.
Traumatic as it may be, time to accept the memory of them - they are past, can't torment you any more.
Deal with your ne2000-induced PTSD, you're not a pussy.
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 19 2018, @10:54AM
It's not PTSD, just very much an unpleasant time in my life. You know, like a colonoscopy. Not overly traumatic but not something I'm going to pull up enjoyable memories of either.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Wednesday September 19 2018, @05:19PM (1 child)
Are you referring to Direct Rendering Manager or Digital Restrictions Management?
(Score: 2) by Pav on Thursday September 20 2018, @12:37AM
heheh.... Direct Rendering Manager... *makes a sign to ward off the evil of the other DRM*
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Wednesday September 19 2018, @05:23PM (4 children)
I think the intent is that owners of hardware is incompatible with free software ought to discard it and instead purchase "Respects Your Freedom" certified hardware [fsf.org] that is compatible with free software.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday September 20 2018, @12:12AM (3 children)
Laptops - what I checked (not exhaustive, granted) are all refurbished thinkpads.
Like what? 5years+ back technology?
Use it for development when those damned desktop managers suck jiga-resources nowadays?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday September 20 2018, @02:16PM
Checked the first thing I happen to need, wireless-N USB dongle doodad, and... holy fuck $45? Last ones I bought, with various mainstream chips, were under $2 apiece.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Thursday September 20 2018, @03:17PM (1 child)
Windows 7 is even older than that, yet a lot of Windows users plan to stick with Windows 7 during these last 16 months of security updates. And developers are still producing and selling new original games for Famicom/NES 35 years after that console came out. What's the primary concern about using old technology? That the supply of ThinkPad laptops to refurbish will dwindle? And by then, Technoethical and Minifree will probably have started refurbishing newer ThinkPad models.
What "jiga-resources" does Xfce suck? Because that's what I've been using on all my X11/Linux boxes since fourth quarter 2011 when I decided Ubuntu Unity wasn't for me. Even on a 1 GB netbook it still ran acceptably.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 20 2018, @10:52PM
What in the "using for development" is unclear to you?
I have one I still use (with a Lubuntu 14.04 upgrade on the way) since 2009 or thereabout. Dualcore intel, 4Gb RAM.
I can still use it for running kicad, but compiling a reasonable sized C/C++ project is taking forever.
No way I can run Eclipse on it for a Java project, I don't have enough time left in this life.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by epitaxial on Monday September 17 2018, @03:56PM (2 children)
Funny enough AIX is still being developed and it has binary log files as well.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Monday September 17 2018, @08:15PM (1 child)
Has it caught up with Solaris 7 yet?
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @05:28AM
AIX hasn't caught up to SunOS let alone Solaris.
Had the misfortune of working at a place that used AIX. What a piece of shite.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @04:11PM (4 children)
the BSDs may be fine for some use cases but to pretend it's a viable replacement for all the things GNU+Linux can do is absurd.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @10:19PM
That's right. It can't run systemd.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday September 17 2018, @10:23PM (2 children)
Citations might be in order. Or, at least list some of those things, and explain how they hurt BSD. The absurdity here, seems to be an ungrounded accusation that BSD's are inferior to Linux. Examining package lists, isn't just about everything available in Linux, also available in BSD?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @02:54AM (1 child)
Filesystems, multi-processing, full disk encryption, runs on arm and amd64, compatibility with stuff compiled for Linux (thinking of java here) -- thats what I would like to know if the BSDs have it.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @09:48PM
FreeBSD has ZFS, DragonflyBSD has HAMMER/HAMMER2. Full disk encryption is easy on FreeBSD and not difficult at all on OpenBSD (neither is any harder than linux). Pretty much all BSD's run on amd64, and Free and Open run on some 32 bit arm boards, and pretty much all aarch64. FreeBSD has a linux compatability layer, OpenBSD doesn't anymore. Either of them can run linux in a VM. Hardware support is pretty good, Free having more than Open due to accepting blobs. Installation is very easy, setup no different than any other *NIX, just some different tools. Documentation is vastly superior, once you break yourself of the habit of googling first, and just start reading the manual you will find no difficulty. Performance-wise... FreeBSD is on par with linux, OpenBSD is still a little behind, but it's not really noticeable for desktop use.
(Score: 5, Funny) by c0lo on Monday September 17 2018, @02:27PM (5 children)
Betcha he'll join TBM for fishing and take sensitivity lessons from him.
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday September 17 2018, @03:39PM (4 children)
I'm only a hobbyist asshole. I never let it interfere with my work. Mind you, in a managerial context, whether I'd fire the person taking offense or the one causing it is cut and dry. Whoever brings a larger conflict/value ratio to the organization can hit the bricks.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Funny) by c0lo on Tuesday September 18 2018, @12:05AM (3 children)
All.i can say: what wasted talent!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Touché) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday September 18 2018, @02:35AM (2 children)
Well, I still have Olympic hopes, so I don't want to lose my amateur status.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @04:22AM (1 child)
Good comment. Although you're the reason I rarely frequent soylentnews and haven't donated a second time so your amateur status may be in jeopardy.
(Score: 3, Touché) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday September 18 2018, @10:30AM
Really? Your skin's that thin? You should work on that. People are going to be saying things you don't like for the entire rest of your life, so it kind of behooves you to learn to let them slide off your back.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday September 17 2018, @03:57PM (6 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday September 17 2018, @04:30PM (5 children)
Sir Linux Torvalds will whip the code-puking pansies into shape!
By "generically", I mean insults that have nothing to do with things in the new CoC. For example, Mr. Linux is not calling people fatties or gaywads. He didn't pre-CoC AFAIK, and won't post-CoC.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @11:14PM (2 children)
Do you have an obsession with CoC?
(Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Monday September 17 2018, @11:19PM
Sometimes you have to handle the CoC that's right up in your face.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @11:36PM
The 'woman' shoving her CoC down everyone's throats is a tranny, so…
(Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Tuesday September 18 2018, @01:41AM (1 child)
https://lwn.net/ml/linux-kernel/CA+55aFy6jNLsywVYdGp83AMrXBo_P-pkjkphPGrO=82SPKCpLQ@mail.gmail.com/
(I didn't know that at the time I previously posted, but you'll notice it's precisely what I was talking about - Linus responsing to a well-established maintainer, who was defending shitty code. Also notice how Linus gives precise techical reasons why the code is shitty - it defends itself from harm by committing suicide!)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 19 2018, @01:34AM
And that is why *sec can go walk off a pier.
They would happily torch the house to stop a would be burglar...
(Score: 5, Interesting) by suburbanitemediocrity on Monday September 17 2018, @04:20PM
I was never insulted for bad code until late in my career. It was then that I realized that I wrote crappy code and in a few short years became *much* better. I wish someone had told me early on.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday September 17 2018, @12:48PM (33 children)
I remember when he chewed out Kay Sievers, big time. There were some people who responded "Oh noes! Linus said something mean!" And then there were people like me who read the rest of the dispute, and concluded that Linus' statement was completely justified - Kay had broken something and repeatedly responded with "not a bug".
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Monday September 17 2018, @12:56PM (5 children)
The concerns might go deeper than just Linus being mean to people on mailing lists. There was this:
make all relocate... Linux kernel dev summit shifts to Scotland – to fit Torvald's holiday plans [theregister.co.uk]
Dude's 48, with the bulk of the tech world on his shoulders. He could use a break, and might be being diplomatic (lying/exaggerating) about his reason for taking a break. "[Getting] some assistance on how to understand people's emotions and respond appropriately" could just mean chatting with friends or his wife.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 19 2018, @01:37AM (2 children)
Torvalds screwed up, but asked if they could do the summit without him.
But nope, they relocate the summit instead and still you try to pin it on Torvalds being an asshole?!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday September 19 2018, @02:40AM (1 child)
I never said he was an asshole.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 19 2018, @10:57AM
Didn't you know all it takes to be an asshole nowadays is to state the truth?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday September 20 2018, @02:25PM (1 child)
And don't forget this:
http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=6907 [ibiblio.org]
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday September 20 2018, @02:31PM
New Linux Torvalds story in 28 minutes.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @01:38PM (24 children)
I am split about this one. On one hand I think he deserves to be healthy. On the other hand, most of the greatest accomplishments the world has ever seen were accomplished by unhealthy people. So it is good for him, but maybe not so good for the project.
Personally I think they should invent a nobel prize for Linus and Stallman. They have given them out for a hell of a lot less.
Where would the world be without these guys?
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Monday September 17 2018, @02:11PM (7 children)
> most of the greatest accomplishments the world has ever seen were accomplished by unhealthy people
Disagree. To randomly pick some famous old dudes, Einstein, Feynman? Or Wellington, Churchill (the first one)?
Hook and Newton were nutjobs, its true...
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday September 17 2018, @02:33PM (6 children)
Don't know about Hook, but Newton was a lousy alchemist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @06:51PM
At one point Newton thought people were trying to "embroil him with women". I swear I read somewhere he accused someone of hiding temptresses under his bed, but cant find it at the moment.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/531510 [jstor.org]
https://www.flandershealth.us/lead-poisoning/the-madness-of-isaac-newton.html [flandershealth.us]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @08:44PM (4 children)
Point me in the direction of an alchemist who was anything but...
At least alchemy was an attempt at a science, albeit of a proto/pseudo sort, want to talk lousy? try reading any of his religious nonsense sometime.
I should add at this point that I do have in my collection of books some obscure limited run (100 copies) Alchemical tracts, one of the joys of being an obscure book collector in a town where you're known to all the bookshop owners by your first name (interestingly, I can't remember ever telling any of them it) is that they do keep all the weird stuff they come across in a box in the back of the shop for you to have first dibs on.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @09:29PM
The interesting thing about alchemy is that eventually you were bound to start getting heavy metal poisoning which includes mental disturbances as a consequence. So as you learned more about it you would go nuttier and nuttier to the point you get more obsessed but less capable of reaching your goal...
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday September 17 2018, @10:31PM
Don't be silly. Some anonymous dude walks in your store, and he never tells you his name, you just KNOW that he's Anonymous Coward. Anonymous has been on television, all over the internets, in the newspapers, on broadcast news - where have you NOT been?
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday September 17 2018, @11:09PM (1 child)
Alchemists were, as you say, trying to do science as they understood it in their day. They were ignorant as all get-out, but weren't stupid, and did manage to figure out some important ideas. For instance, if you actually read Roger Bacon, you'll see that he legitimately knew some real science, but it was all mixed in with crazy mystical writing.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @04:33AM
And the goal of alchemists to change one element to another, long doubted and ridiculed, we now know is possible. Although not through means of chemistry but physics, through nuclear reactions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmutation [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Monday September 17 2018, @02:39PM (9 children)
Boomer detected. Nothing necessarily wrong with that, just a worldview thats a little behind the times.
Everybody is unhealthy or they're be immortal. One political party pushes what boils down to "being shitty" as a way of striking against the legacy fascist white male, etc.
That jumped the shark when Obama got one for "not being white". Lame, weak. The hard science prizes still get a little respect... for now. I'm sure they'll fix that soon enough.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @02:49PM (5 children)
Heck I just realized for the past years I've been more interested in the Ig Nobel awards than the Nobel awards.
Other than the Obama bullshit Peace Prize I can't really remember the other Nobel wins and what they were for (nor do I even car to look up), whereas I can remember a number of the Ig Nobel ones... ;)
(Score: 5, Informative) by PiMuNu on Monday September 17 2018, @03:14PM (4 children)
Recent in physics:
* Detection of gravitational waves (i.e. discovery of a completely new class of astrophysics instrument)
* Higgs discovery (i.e. discovery of the origin of mass)
* Blue LED invention (many many applications)
* Neutrino oscillation discovery (breaks standard model)
> I can't really remember the other Nobel wins (nor do I even car to look up)
Indeed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @06:58PM (3 children)
Meh some German guy predicted that 100 years ago.
Meh some Italian guy predicted that 60 years ago.
Why should we give so much honour to people who confirm the existence of stuff that others have long predicted?
Not saying they didn't do a good job but in the old days the Nobel Physics prizes were given to people who found stuff others didn't predict...
(Score: 2) by turgid on Monday September 17 2018, @08:08PM
Prediction is one thing. Having a verifiable observation of the phenomenon that was predicted by the theory is quite another. It's called science and it's how we engage with physical reality. You might like to try it.
In the old days the theories were much simpler and the predictions less grand hence people making discoveries that other people didn't predict. Technology has had to advance a great deal to be able to measure these phenomena that were predicted using some very ingenious reasoning a hundred or so years ago.
But I know you were just joking.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @09:37PM
AFAIK Nobel prizes are never attributed to theoretical physicists, only to the ones making practical, applicable, discoveries.
That's why Einstein got his Nobel for the photo-electric effect. If he had only published the relativity theories, he'd never had it.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Tuesday September 18 2018, @09:26AM
In general I actually agree with GP - it is an embarrassment to the experimentalists that they are lagging behind the theorists.
Specifically though:
* neutrino oscillations were not *predicted*; merely they were identified as a possibility. Most theorists thought that they would not be discovered (like mu2e conversion nowadays). Experiment showed the nature of reality.
* the power of gravitational waves is that it gives us an entirely new type of space telescope. The reason it is neat is that we have developed an entirely new class of instrumentation. The observation is also quite neat.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @06:26PM (1 child)
Let's not rewrite history to support an anti-SJW agenda. Obama got the Peace Prize for "not being Bush," not for being black. I think it's equally garbage, but let's not inject fake identity politics into it. (Isn't that the standard accusation that some make against SJWs?)
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday September 17 2018, @07:30PM
Agreed. Wasn't it on Day #1 that people were saying he was awarded the Peace Prize for "not being Bush"? Why yes, yes it was:
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2009/10/09/judith-miller-obama-wins-nobel-peace-prize.html [foxnews.com]
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2009/10/09/tommy-seno-obama-nobel-prize-win.html [foxnews.com]
http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1929433,00.html [time.com]
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2009/10/nobel_laureate_obama_owes_bush.html [npr.org]
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2009/10/obama_nobel_saturday_night_liv.html [npr.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @06:24PM
He never got such thing! He got the nobel peace price. Let's not confuse the two. The former is prestigious and the latter is a disgrace.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Thexalon on Monday September 17 2018, @03:53PM
The approximate equivalent for contributions to computing is the ACM Turing Award.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @09:03PM (2 children)
All using OpenBSD and not putting up with this SJW shit.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @10:43PM (1 child)
OpenBSD? compiled with GCC is it not?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @03:19AM
Nope [undeadly.org]
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday September 17 2018, @09:13PM (1 child)
No, no: you have to "give all your bases" and all the prizes to ass-hats like Gates. Without Gates we wouldn't have Windows and Doors and and and.... STUFF like Clippy and BOB and and and.....
....
Yeah. You're right.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Tuesday September 18 2018, @02:29AM
... and affordable/commoditized personal computers.
Gotta give this to Microsoft, for a very long time it was the single... ummm, yeah, let's call it so... OS producer not tightly linked to a hardware line.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Monday September 17 2018, @04:05PM (1 child)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 19 2018, @01:44AM
Sievers have been at odds with Torvalds for ages.
After getting handed the udev maintainership by GKH (same guy that Torvalds seems to trust with his lives work for some reason), Sievers one day decides, unilaterally and without informing the kernel people before implementing the change, that udev would no longer be responsible for loading device firmwares.
So the kernel people had to scramble to implement firmware loading into the kernel, all while cursing Sievers (some even mused about forking udev and bundling the fork with the kernel).
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @01:11PM
i suppose with all the communication going on (and enabled by a rather open and stable os kernel) a "smurfikation" of the population was prone to happen sooner then later.
thus the problem dealing with smurfs is that a leader has to be rather forceful or abrasive to get a point across so that it doesnt just turn blue and disappear in the blue samness of everything?
ofc it could just be jelousy of the silver spoon born segment of the population which has a monopoly on emotional unjustified (in their case) outbursts ; )
anyways ... happy holidays.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @01:54PM (8 children)
What about medical professionals? Doctors will get so bent out of shape that they will physically throw things at their nurses and injure them. Most doctors I've had the displeasure of interacting with in a B2B context have been immature little shits, and the tiniest little perceived slight against their massive, over-inflated egos will throw them into an unprovoked tirade that makes Gunnery Sergeant Hartman look like a care bear.
I have never once in my life witnessed this level of childish behavior from an IT professional.
Whataboutism is about hypocrisy on the part of a gaslighting asshole. The misogynerd narrative has gone too far. The medical professions need to fix their shit. What about diversity in MDs and DOs? Why aren't MDs and DOs nearly as diverse as RNs? Where is the media smear campaign? How many patients need to suffer preventable medical mistakes before we reign in the abusive, violent behavior of MDs?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @02:15PM (2 children)
RNs as diverse ... like all women?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @02:42PM (1 child)
Now we now which centuries you come from, thanks! (hint.... only about the past two centuries). Men are still minorities in nursing today, but this has been steadily changing.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by choose another one on Monday September 17 2018, @06:49PM
Er, isn't that just like saying "women are minorities in doctors but this is steadily changing" - in fact (in the UK) women make up the majority of young doctors (under 30) ?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @02:26PM (1 child)
You haven't met any IT professionals, have you?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @02:36PM
He holds the delusion he's one of them
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @02:40PM (1 child)
Whataboutism is also whataboutism.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday September 17 2018, @10:15PM
People complain about whataboutism. But what about people who abruptly change the subject?
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @11:25PM
Agreed! Most of the doctors around here are from India or that area.
We need more diversity!