Richard Stallman Acknowledges Libreboot Is No Longer A Part of GNU (gnu.org)

Libreboot became an official GNU project in May. Now an anonymous Slashdot reader writes: Richard Stallman has officially announced that Libreboot is no longer a GNU package. The maintainer of Libreboot had tried to leave the GNU project in September 2016, but the departure was not acknowledged until January 2017. Libreboot is a replacement for proprietary BIOS systems, effectively a distribution of coreboot without any binary blobs and adding an automated build/install process.
In the post titled "Goodbye to GNU Libreboot," Stallman wrote that "When a package's maintainer steps down, that doesn't by itself break the relationship between GNU and the package. If it is left without a maintainer but is still useful, the GNU Project will usually look for new maintainers to work on it. However, we can instead drop ties with the package, if that seems the right thing to do.

"A few months ago, the maintainer of GNU Libreboot decided not to work on Libreboot for the GNU Project any more. That was her decision to make. She also asserted that Libreboot was no longer a GNU package -- something she could not unilaterally do. The GNU Project had to decide what to do in regard to Libreboot. We have decided to go along with the former GNU maintainer's wishes in this case, for a combination of reasons: (1) it had not been a GNU package for very long, (2) she was the developer who had originally made it a GNU package, and (3) there were no major developers who wanted to continue developing Libreboot under GNU auspices."

Comments

Re:Way to ignore the Discrimination claims

[Anonymous Coward]

And the maintainer of libreboot is going to be dispassionate on the subject? Right...

She was hired with the trans gender on the application form. So not likely they're bigoted against trans, is it.

But the radical left will like it because (a) it's "Tech is sexist!" (b) "Trans is better", and the right will like it because (a) "GPL is a cancer!" (b) "Stallman is a leftie hippie!". So it's really going to be something to unite both the tumblr intersectionalists with the trump tweeters. At least there's SOME up side: united in snide.

Re:There is more to this story...

[AmiMoJo]

Since Libreboot is free software, under the GPL anyway, the GNU people could simply have called GNU Libreboot a fork, assigned a new maintainer and carried on with it. That's the thing with free software - you give up the ability to stop people releasing their own version.

I can understand Stallman's position. Libreboot is a really important part of the GNU system, absolutely essential for creating computers that run on completely free software. GNU is diminished by its loss.

The real problem here is that the FSF has not responded well to the alleged discrimination, and due to it's close relationship to GNU both organizations are now being damaged.

They got it wrong in the summary

[lucm]

It's the other way around.

GNU and FSF do not belong in the libreboot community at this point.

https://libreboot.org/gnu-insu...

Let's hope the rich and vibrant libreboot community can thrive again now that the transphobic, intolerant GNU and FSF can no longer oppress them.

Re:There is more to this story...

[93 Escort Wagon]

This is what I hate about these sorts of stories. There are people who will automatically assume "oh, more SJW bullshit" and feel free to pontificate. Then there are people who will assume "another transgendered person is a victim of a horrible misjustice, how typical", and feel free to pontificate. All based on little to no information.

Most of us don't know the situation. We don't know the people involved. I have no idea what the interpersonal environment is like within the FSF. Other than Stallman being quite the odd duck, I know pretty much nothing about any of these people.There's no good context on which to even form an opinion.

Re:Is this /. post a coverup of the real story?

[allo]

i recommend reading the mailing list thread. Especially the statements from stallman are very calm and peaceful. I would have thought he would be more angry and linus torvalds would have smashed her for what she did on the ML. Stallman seems to be great at diplomacy.

Re:How to get it in future? Where is it lodged?

[Dutch Gun]

The FSF made a blanket statement denying the accusation, but I haven't seen anything more than that. So... that's all we have to go on. If this were a giant corporation everyone hated, like Comcast, would people be so equally quick to simply take a company's terse press release as proof of their innocence? Did they actually do any sort of serious internal investigation? They don't even say. Forgive me I'm a bit skeptical.

Then again, I have no idea who Leah Rowe is, or what kind of person she is. Maybe she's unstable or a liar, and just makes things up. Maybe she's telling the truth. Or maybe her perspective and mentality differs so much from the others at the FSF that the same facts are interpreted in completely opposite ways.

How do you tell who's telling the truth in this literal "he said / she said"? I certainly can't.

Re:How to get it in future? Where is it lodged?

[Anonymous Coward]

You calling a transgendered person "mentally ill" sounds no different than the bigots who called homosexuals "mentally ill"
How is your bigotry any more justified than theirs, bigot?

Re:How to get it in future? Where is it lodged?

[Anonymous Coward]

> You calling a transgendered person "mentally ill" sounds no different than the bigots who called homosexuals "mentally ill"...

The _fact_ that gender dysphoria is a medical condition is what causes insurance companies to cover gender reassignment surgeries and the associated procedures. Gender dysphoria is a _real_ _medical_ condition that is treated and treated _effectively_ by gender reassignment surgeries, hormone replacement, & etc.

Gender dysphoria is no less real than schizophrenia or the various flavors of psychotic depression (this is depression, plus delusions like "Every living thing in the world is full of maggots, myself included, and thus I am sad." or "I am already dead. I am literally a walking cadaver. I can literally see and smell my body decay, and -thus- I am sad and I require no food, as I am already dead."). There are treatments that vary in effectiveness from _completely_ to _reasonable_ for these medical conditions.

One is _terribly_ off the mark if one is calling another a bigot for mentioning that a medical condition that has _widely_ recognized and _effective_ treatments that the patients are happy with is -you know- a medical condition.

As a side note: interestingly enough, unlike gender dysphoria, body dysmorphia (the feeling that a part of your body is _wrong, wrong, WRONG, WRONG!, WRONG!!!_) is _not_ responsive to surgical intervention! Either the patient is _unshakably_ convinced that the surgery was botched, and the part is still WRONG, or the feelings of WRONGness are transferred to another part of the body.

You don't know how hormones work, do you?

[rsilvergun]

or what it actually fucking means to be transgender? There are people who have too much or too little of what makes us one or the other sex. They are _literally_ transgender.

I know a few members of the LGBT community and the last fucking thing they wanted was attention. They kept their heads as low as they could for most of their lives to avoid having them smashed in by people like yourself. Your B.S. is more of the "They choose to be LGBT" crap. Nobody chooses that life. You get shit on non-stop by everyone; _especially_ your family. You spend most of your childhood getting the shit kicked out of your.

Finally your opinion is bad for you too. Hating on LGBTs, like hating on Blacks, is just yet another way the ruling class gives you an outlet for your frustrations instead of better pay and a better lifestyle. It's a buffer to keep the working class at each other's throats instead of theirs. They've been doing it for centuries. Grow the fuck up, wake the fuck up and realize who your real enemies are. You've got more important things to worry about than whether some dude thinks like a chick.

And since fucking when did /. mod trolls up? This guy got up to +4 for God's sake... Can we get some mods in here?

Re:You don't know how hormones work, do you?

[_KiTA_]

There are people who have too much or too little of what makes us one or the other sex. They are _literally_ transgender.

What you are speaking of in this case would be intersex, but besides that, no. They feel their gender is wrong. That's the definition of Gender Dysphoria. They are _literally_ suffering from Gender Dysphoria. That's a mental illness or disorder. One that's treated via therapy as well as transitioning.

Which we have already established because it is covered under insurance.

I know a few members of the LGBT community and the last fucking thing they wanted was attention. They kept their heads as low as they could for most of their lives to avoid having them smashed in by people like yourself. Your B.S. is more of the "They choose to be LGBT" crap. Nobody chooses that life. You get shit on non-stop by everyone; _especially_ your family. You spend most of your childhood getting the shit kicked out of your.

You heard it here ladies and gentlemen (and sorry, those are the only two genders): Calling Gender Dysphoria a mental illness - when it is a mental illness -- somehow means the following:

* You wish to physically assault and / or murder people suffering from this mental illness.
* You believe this mental illness is by choice, like no other mental illness in the history of the world.

If you question anything, even the most tiny part of the doctrine, you're tossed in with the most hateful people imaginable, because when you have an echo chamber you absolutely cannot have any windows in it.

Finally your opinion is bad for you too. Hating on LGBTs, like hating on Blacks, is just yet another way the ruling class gives you an outlet for your frustrations instead of better pay and a better lifestyle. It's a buffer to keep the working class at each other's throats instead of theirs. They've been doing it for centuries. Grow the fuck up, wake the fuck up and realize who your real enemies are. You've got more important things to worry about than whether some dude thinks like a chick.

I don't hate LGBTs, nor have I said anything to the effect. Any perceived bigotry is projection on your part. And I love the mention of the "ruling class" and "working class" stuff -- surefire codeword that I'm speaking with a Marxist.

Because that's one of the major takeaways from all the shit mentioned in this thread -- the attempts at "safe spaces," giving "normal" the magic word "cis," the demanding that special classes of people such as Blacks or Transgenders get special rights are the result of people taking the same failed Marxist ideas that have killed hundreds of millions of people and applying it to minorities.

Identity Politics is a scam. We aren't a hivemind and I owe you no apologies for what other people with the same traits as I have done, nor do I owe you or anyone a damned thing because of some superficial trait.

And since fucking when did /. mod trolls up? This guy got up to +4 for God's sake... Can we get some mods in here?

Sounds like you need some muscle over here!

Re:You don't know how hormones work, do you?

[AmiMoJo]

He put forth a reasoned argument for his position, complete with links.

No, he set out to deliberately mislead. Compare his text to the content of the links - they are either shitty Reddit posts on well known troll boards, or they don't support what he is claiming at all.

This is a standard troll tactic. Make unfounded statements, throw in a few links that you know people probably won't check in any detail and pretend that your "argument" is well researched and supported by evidence.

He then goes on to misrepresent the medical profession's position on gender disphoria. It's not a mental illness, although it can and often does result in mental illness like depression when not properly treated. In parts of the world where it is considered a mental illness, it tends to be for political reasons such as getting insurance to cover treatment or to satisfy religious extremists.

everything to them is about "hate."

Indeed. Some people seem to think everything that is wrong is the fault of an SJW, and that all discrimination and bias is just SJW complaining and thus cannot possibly be real. It's the ultimate form of virtue signalling, because it legitimizes any and all behaviour, and complaining makes you an SJW Nazi.

Re:You don't know how hormones work, do you?

[_KiTA_]

No, he set out to deliberately mislead. Compare his text to the content of the links - they are either shitty Reddit posts on well known troll boards, or they don't support what he is claiming at all.

Since I doubt you're claiming that the Liinux Subreddit, the Libreroot Developer, or the GNU mailing list are troll boards, I'm presuming you're talking about KiA.

I'd like to refer everyone to that KiA post again, as it's better cited than anything else I've seen on the topic:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Kotak...

Does this look like trolling to you? Archived links to primary sources? Really?

Are any of the links I quoted earlier divergent from my claims? That's apparently your claim. Which ones?

I was even called out for literally quoting Rowe's claims of "transphobia" because apparently quoting that word is "scare quotes," despite the term "transphobia" having a shifting definition that amounts to "anything that a Transgendered individual doesn't like."

You know why it's best to "scare quote" that term? Because without any context it can mean actual transphobia -- firing someone for their Gender Dysphoria -- or it can mean something as benign as refusing to use some made up fake pronouns or suggesting there are only two genders. This muddying of the water is intentional -- motte and bailey again.

We don't know what "transphboia" happened there, because there's no evidence about anything that's happened in this event. As far as we can know, the "transphobia" was firing an underperforming person who just happens to have Gender Dysphoria -- as you can't be Transgender without Gender Dysphoria -- under the theory that Transmen and Transwomen deserve special exceptions to the rules. I.e., the transphobic act was firing this dev, for any reason.

Which brings us back to the original topic. Contrast the above with the pile of very specific and legally actionable claims that the original claimant, one Leah Rowe, makes.
https://libreboot.org/gnu/

There is exactly 0 evidence, 0 citations on this page. None. NONE.

Which one looks more like trolling, the one with 6 primary source citations, or the one that goes on for pages making vague claims of undefined wrongdoing, including directly accusing three people of violations of labor laws.

In fact, just noticed that in my re-reading. Here's that relevant part with the names removed.

The following people should either resign and/or be fired from the FSF, to be replaced by other people:
X - executive director - the one who fired the employee
Y - outreach and communication coordinator - the bully
Z - system administrator - leaked private emails to X, which lead to the employee being fired.

I would like to put forth a different explanation of what happened, which is just as valid as Leah's based on having the same amount of evidence for it.

The employee in question was sending emails they should not have been. We could speculate on what they are -- harassment, threats, some form of slurs -- but it doesn't matter. The system admin did an investigation of said user's email -- no doubt after an investigation request by Human Resources -- and sent the information to HR. HR then recommended termination, which the executive director followed through with.

Does that sound a bit more reasonable than "it's all a conspiracy because the biggest open source organization in the world just hates transgendered people?" The same one that just happened to be the target of several faux outrage attempts (Sarah Sharp's fainting couch moment, the Ada Institute's attempt to fake a rape hoax against Linus, etc) in the past few years? Really?

In the end I refuse to "listen and believe" -- translating from neo-leftist doublespeak, I refuse to ignore due process and t

Re:Regressive Leftist?

[_KiTA_]

What exactly are leftists regressing too? Or is this another case of someone from the right wing trying to paint the left with their own brush ala Karl Rove?

First off, I'm a liberal. Voted for Hillary, although my heart belonged to Bernie. I'm not afraid of Trump, though, so I'm apparently not a very good liberal.

Second. Regressive Left is a play on the term "Progressives." Because the authoritarian post-modernist critical theory (read: marxist) nutjobs who are behind the Progressive movement are anything BUT progressive.

They want to set up segregation again, this time under the theory that they'll choose who gets the good water fountains. http://www.thecollegefix.com/p...

They want to discard the magna carta and the foundations of our legal system -- because some pink haired "Gender Diversity Officer" should have more of a say than the police in rape accusations.
http://www.indystar.com/story/...

They want to redefine terms like "racism" so that certain protected classes are allowed to be racist, because they don't know any better. Because the people suggesting this are racists. https://www.rawstory.com/2016/...

We just saw the US population as well as the UK reject this insanity. The rest of the EU appears to be following right behind. And rather than do any form of introspection and start pushing out some of these toxic, problematic marxist elements, instead we get unhinged conspiracy theories about L33t Russian Haxx0rs.

God save us, because the left has learned absolutely nothing.

(Fun fact: Note that the CIA also confirmed all those emails were true, but we're not supposed to care that the DNC is more corrupt than the GOP now. Nor are we supposed to care that Trump actually bamboozled the GOP into giving him a standing ovation when he talked about protecting Gay Rights. Remember, Literally Hitler.)

Much ado about nothing

[Afty0r]

Reading several of the statements about the issue on libreboot.org linked from other highly-voted comments on this thread, they all appear to be written by Leah Rowe, and read like those of a petulant child. There's a lack of maturity both in the tone of the posts and in the content. Some are borderline libellous and have no evidence to back it up - besides hearsay from other people. But not a link to their own post, or even a direct quote, just a load of spiel about what they said. It's sad and pathetic, I suspect the FSF and GNU will be glad to see the back of anyone with that kind of attitude / lack of professionalism.

Re: Melodrama

[AmiMoJo]

In terms of leaving, the main issue was the services that GNU was providing. The mailing lists, the source code hosting. To keep development cohesive it was requested that people stop using them and use the official Libreboot resources.

Note that no-one was calling for a public discussion of the details of what happened, merely for the FSF to take action over it.

Re: How to get it in future? Where is it lodged?

[GameboyRMH]

The "professional victim" is a nonexistant bogeyman, always has been. Its claimed existence is the last refuge of indefensible victimizers and their supporters.