When Enthusiasm For Free Software Turns Ugly

An anonymous reader writes: Bruce Byfield writes for Linux Magazine about the unfortunate side-effect of people being passionate about open source software: discussions about rival projects can get heated and turn ugly. "Why, for example, would I possibly to see OpenOffice humiliated? I prefer LibreOffice's releases, and — with some misgivings — the Free Software Foundation's philosophy and licensing over that of the Apache Foundation. I also question the efficiency of having two office suites so closely related to each other. Yet while exploring such issues may be news, I don't forget that, despite these differences, OpenOffice and the Apache Foundation still have the same general goals as LibreOffice or the Free Software Foundation. The same is true of other famous feuds. Why, because I have a personal preference for KDE, am I supposed to ignore GNOME's outstanding interface designs? Similarly, because I value Debian's stability and efforts at democracy, am I supposed to have a strong distaste for Ubuntu?"

Comments

Why the surprise?

[Anonymous Coward]

Humans are pack animals. They need to gather according to shared traits and then see an enemy of everyone who does not fit. It happens with politics, religion, sports, cultural preferences, sexual preferences, computer platform choice and so on. The only thing going for nerd pack mentality is that slapfights and internet rage are funny. You want to get a good laugh at those losers flinging spitballs at each other over irrelevant minutiae. And then you want to twist their arms behind their backs and drown them in a toilet because they don't fit in.

Re:Why the surprise?

[hairyfeet]

Thanks for proving the article, as he points out a specific issue with a piece of software fricking notorious for being brittle and buggy and you start throwing insults. Its because of guys like you that Linux usage has dropped soooo damned low its now listed as "other" and are still behind both Vista and Windows 8, the two most hated MSFT OSes since MSBob.

This is what happens when the users have NO WAY to influence direction, you get shit like Pulse and Systemd rammed down your throats. Metro showed that voting with your wallets does work as the users were able to force MSFT to not only get away from the "supergigantic smartphone" mentality that was ruining the desktop but even to go so far as for the first time in their history actually give away the flagship product to keep from risking Win 10 becoming another sub 5% Windows 8.

But without the power of the wallet users are helpless against corporate interests which is why even though a quite large section of the Linux userbase, from home users all the way to admins of large Linux server farms have said loud and clear SYSTEMD IS NOT WANTED and too damned buggy and brittle all they have gotten in response from the devs is this level of reply with devs even going so far as to copy verbatim Metro fanboys memes like "embrace the innovation" and "you're a luddite" and so the users have no other choice but to leave. If anybody thinks the woefully underfunded Devuan has a snowballs chance in hell with Poettering grabbing more and more shit for systemd at an ever faster pace? Then I have a bridge you may be interested in, hell even longtime apologist of all things FOSS Robert Pogson likens Poettering to Putin in that no matter what he gets he's not appeased and his ego has grown so much he's now blogging about how Torvalds is a bad role model and needs to behave and you think a practically broke group of devs is gonna be able to compete with THAT ego who is backed by Red Hat's big pile o' cash? Not happening.

With zero influence or control the users only choice is what they are doing now....leaving. I don't know how many server devs I've talked to that are leaving Linux over mission critical bugs in systemd, one long time Linux admin I talked to was royally pissed as he had a huge Linux farm and the order just came down from the top to switch it all to Server 2K12 because of systemd,while others are desperately trying to bone up on the BSD way of doing things and trying to make sure their critical apps work so they can jump ship. THIS is what happens when the users have no voice, THIS is what happens when their responses are like TFA nothing but insults and attacks, you become "other" as your share drops, the devs move to greener pastures, and your support structure withers. I hope everybody enjoys "Linux, a subdivision of Red Hat" because RH has made it clear that's the goal, make Linux a VM running atop systemd to support their cloud computing initiative, because without any measure of affecting development? You really have no choice other than "their way or the highway".

Re:Why the surprise?

[Grishnakh]

Its because of guys like you that Linux usage has dropped soooo damned low its now listed as "other"

Wrong. While you're correct about your criticism of his behavior (complaining about specific problems is absolutely justified; if my car nearly got me killed because of poor design or manufacturing, I'd complain about that loudly too), that isn't why Linux usage is low. Linux usage was never high to begin with, and if it has dropped (which is probably nearly impossible to determine, since Linux users don't buy their computers pre-loaded with Linux), it's likely because of the rise of tablets. Anyway, the real reason Linux usage is so low is because of inertia and marketing. Go into any Best Buy and the computers all have Windows and MacOS, so that's what people use.

Re:Why the surprise?

[LWATCDR]

Sorry I like all tech.
Back in the dark ages I love my C64 but the Atari was cool and I so wished I had the software base and slots of the Apple II line.
When I got my Amiga I still thought that Atari ST was cool and the Mac was interesting but out of my price range.
PCs? I own a Macbook and love OS/X. I write Windows code for a living but I also work on Linux. BSD? Also interesting.

Intel? ARM? AMD? MIPS? AVR? PIC? Yea it is all good.
So much cool stuff and so little time. Why do people need pick and be nasty when there's so much cool stuff.

Why Indeed

[Thanshin]

"Why, for example, would I possibly to see OpenOffice humiliated?

I don't often possibly to see.

But when I do, I ask myself why would I.

For example.

Can't we all just get along?

[Anubis IV]

I think, if we can just be patient and take the time to learn a bit more about each other, we can—quite possibly—finally get along with one another. No more fighting. No more squabbling. No more arguing about who or what is better. We learn to coexist.

Ya know, I think we may be on to something here. Before we lose this moment, let's just jot down those thoughts quickly...in emacs.

Re:Can't we all just get along?

[jbernardo]

I think that vi lends itself better to that state of understanding and empathy.
I see no reason to write this shared moment in emacs other than a desire to be divisive and non caring towards command line users.

Re:Can't we all just get along?

[TeknoHog]

Emacs was nice, but I now prefer systemd instead.

How a project is maintained

[jcdr]

Can make a big difference between projects. For example LibreOffice was forked from OpenOffice because to much potential contributors was frustrated by the way the OpenOffice maintainers was with them in the past. The libav fork from libFFmpeg was also a way to solve different way of maintaining the project at some point in time. And I am certain that there is a lot of others examples.

There nothing wrong with this process. Better having two peaceful projects than a single one with frustration against it.

Gnome's outstanding interface design?

[lars_stefan_axelsson]

"am I supposed to ignore GNOME's outstanding interface designs?"

Uhh? What? Where's this outstanding interface design, and why haven't they told anyone about it?

Look, we're not ignoring it. They just haven't shown it to us! Please, why keep that a secret and release Gnome 3 shell instead?

Re:Don't be mean to Lennart

[serviscope_minor]

Indeed, those who use the phrase as a pejorative essentially label themselves as angry idiots. It also doesn't mean anything. I've seen SJWs blames in the comments on almost everything including quite diametrically opposite things.

I even saw them get blamed for making sci-fi about dystopia, and that was an AC modded up to +3 insigntful so clearly some people agreed.

So, I'd like to challenge anyone actually using the phrase to actually define what it means in a way that isn't a catch-all of "crap I hate on the internet".

Tribalism

[jpkunst]

Tribalism a.k.a. "us" versus "them" is one of the oldest and deepest-seated human instincts (chimpanzees are also very tribal, which suggests that the instinct goes back to the common ancestor of humans and chimps).

The overwhelming instinct is to choose a group to belong to and to want to see competing groups humiliated. Breaking out of this is very uncomfortable, as the effort will not be appreciated by your "tribe mates", who will consider you a traitor.

Not an Open Source issue

[houghi]

This is just human behaviour. This is like adding 'on the internet; to turn it into something new.

People have literaly killed because of their passion. This is not something new since Open Software. Not even since software or since computers. This has been going on since Kain and Abel.

People are passionate about things they care about: News at 11.

I'll tell you why

[wonkey_monkey]

Why, for example, would I possibly to see OpenOffice humiliated?

Because it never tells you when you accidentally a word, that's why.