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A comment on Linus Torvalds: 'I'll never be cuddly but I can be more polite'. Parent comment

Re:Linus Torvalds: 'I'll never be cuddly but I can be more p... by nalllar on Thursday September 27, 2018 @09:23AM (#18084180)
Being political isn't a problem. Free Software is political.

mjg59 put this far better than I could:

> A reminder that free software is fundamentally about breaking down barriers preventing people from participating in a social endeavour that grants them more control over their computers, and anyone who argues against that process is not helping the cause of free software

> Some of those barriers are technical (DRM, proprietary software, undocumented hardware) and some are social (unwelcoming communities, abusive maintainers). You don't get to focus on one category and deny the other.

> Alleged free software advocates who defend abusive individuals aren't helping the cause of free software by doing so. Push back.

> "If anything deserves a reward, it is social contribution" - the GNU manifesto by Richard Stallman, 1985.

https://twitter.com/mjg59/status/1042709376442687490

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Re:Linus Torvalds: 'I'll never be cuddly but I can be more p... by AllegedAlec on Thursday September 27, 2018 @09:32AM (#18084263)
Where in the definition of FOSS does it say anything about breaking down barriers? Neither the definition of free software nor the definition of open software said anything about that. Unless that guy somehow would provide something that indicates that there's a consensus about his definition of FOSS being the correct one, it's just another person trying to push his own values as the values of an entire group.
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Re:Linus Torvalds: 'I'll never be cuddly but I can be more p... by nailer on Thursday September 27, 2018 @09:30AM (#18084247)
mjg's quote was concerning ethics and abuse, and does not mention politics.

The concern is that the CoC itself may be used to abuse individuals.

Asides from the Tso example, there was someone else harassed because, outside of a project, they expressed a sexual preference for male dominant/female submissive roles.

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Re:Linus Torvalds: 'I'll never be cuddly but I can be more p... by pseudalopex on Thursday September 27, 2018 @12:10PM (#18085813)
Can you explain what you mean about Ted Ts'o? I know there's a story going around that people are calling him a rape apologist because he didn't endorse the CoC. People have called him a rape apologist for years because of arguments he made about rape.

If your other example is Larry Garfield, he's part of a subculture that's controversial even in BDSM circles, and he insisted on bringing elements of that subculture into technical events. Also, the official position seems to be that he didn't actually violate Drupal's code of conduct, but they removed him anyway.

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