NetworkManager 1.50 Released - Now Ensures Offensive Terms Don't Appear In Settings

[coatlessali]

if you really want to see the version of the software that prints the words "MASTER" and "SLAVE" that badly, you can find it in the git commit history of the network manager repo

if removing those two deprecated words is censorship, then Linux getting rid of reiserfs is literally 1984

[wangling]

I am tired of political correctness and everything related in the English context.Excluding words like 'master slave' only makes me think that these people are trying to cover up history so that no one dares to mention it These are normal and objectively existing words, and all countries have a history of slave societies in their development history But only English speakers attempt to erase these.

And 'Offensive'? NM often represents something similar to "mother F**ker" in the Chinese context. If you insist on sticking to "correctness", why not let NM change its name?

[coatlessali]

HEARTBREAKING: contributor made a piece of code sound slightly friendlier, millions of web servers now turned POLITICAL, redhat preparing to launch orbital space laser to destroy western society. more at 8:00

[pc777]

If you know what the old game RuneScape is; they removed your character's Male/Female gender choice and replaced it on everyone with Body type/pronouns:

Ha Ha. Why is male first? Females should be type A and males are obviously type B! As a society we need to do better!

[sophisticles]

The dirty little secret is the far left and far right are far more similar to each other than any of them want to admit.

It's the majority in the middle that just rolls their eyes at this whole thing and moves on to stuff that actually matters.

You are 100 percent correct.

There was a video on YouTube that was satire but showed how racists and so-called anti-racists actually believe very similar things.

The one that I remember is how racists say colored people and the so-called progressives on the left say people of color.

What's the difference?

[Espionage724]

I still don't understand what the problem is, nobody imposed anything, but the big projects decided to do it.

I'm not aware of a direct and specific problem yet (related to code). My argument is that it's not necessary, and will eventually lead to something loud and stupid causing unnessary dev downtime bickering over it.

Like, if Wayland in its most presentable form did a 50/50 dev split over a code term word change, and 50 forked Wayland2. Split dev resources that started over unnecessary word politics, to no end-user benefit (the main objective of Wayland as code: to be usable to end-users). Computers don't care about words. Compilers don't care about real-world bias to words. Git doesn't care about using main vs master branch names. It's only "some" people that care about "certain" words at-discretion, picking context unrelated to dev code, and changing dev code based on non-coding reasons. That doesn't create optimal code.

Basically, the effort needed to do master -> main could be put towards making code function better to me as an end-user. I don't agree with making unnecessary changes; I want stuff on my screen working. Dev word politics aren't making stuff on my screen function better. If people want to throw "maintenance burden" around leading to years of sub-par Wayland, then actually mean it.

[woddy]

Changing the terms is only being done to enforce a political stance onto the code and project, without necessarily benefiting the code or project.

If you know what the old game RuneScape is; they removed your character's Male/Female gender choice and replaced it on everyone with Body type/pronouns:



It was done under the same "DEI" encapsulation, but without any warning, or without even asking players (player polls are a large part of Old School RuneScape). Years ago if you chose a Gender: Male option for your character, "DEI" got the old option removed and replaced with Body type and Pronoun separation.

1. This benefited nobody
2. Nobody asked for it
3. It was done for "inclusion", where it's outright removing the old terms (eg: your old gender choice was "offensive", so here's a generic body type descriptor that's less offensive to whoever you offended)
4. This specific change is not visible anywhere outside of that single interface in the game (character customization)
5. #4 raises the question why it was changed to begin with: Nobody sees it, so who was asking for it to be changed? Who benefits?
6. This particular change was introduced out-of-nowhere and was quietly mentioned inside another major more-notable update (Slayer Partners)

And it gets more weird than that looking further at other DEI-related changes removing Husband terms too. Whatever this word "purification" ordeal is is going after terms like this to replace them with generic descriptors.

But that's driving a point that the old terms were implemented to offend someone. In terms of code (or hardware specifically): I'm not thinking my hard drive is some destitute or otherwise being unfairly controlled by another being just because I put a jumper into Slave mode. Or that the master branch on the Winetricks script I use often means that the project is ran by supremacists and want to own Slaves or whatever.

The words used prior were not being used for the definition that's being applied now calling for their removal. And just like that kernel example I made, it snow-balls into whatever words "a group" wants to tag.

And the words are being changed at a priority above fixing the code itself! Is NetworkManager perfect code-wise that they can afford making a offensive-term hit list? Linux maintainers like mentioning "maintenance burden" when it comes to Xorg vs Wayland, but I guess some projects aren't so burdened to afford being able to play with word politics?

On the one hand, changing the term by itself is innocent enough. On the other hand, doing that is suspiciously higher-prioritized over fixing code itself. I don't code; I use software. I need the software functioning in-my-face well-before I need to worry about line 1025 in header.c having a master/slave term. Someone taking the time to find line 1025, changing the word, and committing/pushing it under a warm-fuzzy good-guy card could have fixed one of the 1000 other bug reports sitting in the queue

I still don't understand what the problem is, nobody imposed anything, but the big projects decided to do it.
Once again...what's the problem if GNOME, Plasma, NM and many projects have joined this policy?
You don't like it? Don't use them! In the history of software it's not the first time that terms are changed and nobody has ever said anything, now instead the controversy is only political.
You don't agree? Fine, but it's the developers and the guidelines that decide, not you or me.

[woddy]

Because it's not solving anything.

1. The terminology used was not in any relation to real-world slave owners; it was related to code
2. The terminology is only being changed to "not offend" some imaginary group of people (find me proof before contesting)
3. Snow-ball effect with other unrelated terminology (eg: "I take offense to kernel sounding like one of those southern federation leaders (implying racist connotation); change it!")
4. No real-world person benefiting from the terminology changes (#2)
5. Changes are being driven by some widespread "diversity, equity, and inclusion" group with whatever their end-goal agenda is (that's completely unrelated to anything code)

...and so? I don't understand what the problem is in changing some terms. It's not an obligation! You can use the term you want in your software.
The world changes, we change, technology changes and so some of the terms used can also change.
I agree that it most likely won't solve anything, but why not?
It seems more like a political and ideological battle, rather than a fact that has something to do with software.
Politics is everywhere, even in software...so if some large software organizations have decided so, it's not clear what the problem is, you won't be arrested if you continue to use them in your software.

[DanaG]

When some big company started some wide effort to get rid of blacklist/whitelist and slave/master in their product code, my thought was:

Great, so employees who belong certain demographics won't have to call a piece of hardware or software a master or slave, but the police will still end them at the drop of a hat. Such progress! How about spending that money and time on inequities that actually matter?

But a small developer spending their own time changing terminology in some config files? Eh, whatever, that's fine.

[smitty3268]

Do you realize that you just described the Woke, DEI, Left and not the people you were originally talking about?

The dirty little secret is the far left and far right are far more similar to each other than any of them want to admit.

It's the majority in the middle that just rolls their eyes at this whole thing and moves on to stuff that actually matters.