Lennart Poettering: Open Source Community "Quite a Sick Place To Be In" 993

Posted by samzenpus on Monday October 06, 2014 @03:57PM from the let-the-flamewar-begin dept. An anonymous reader writes "Free software programmer Lennart Poettering has been part of his fair share of controversy in the open source community, and his latest essay may raise the most eyebrows yet. Poettering takes on the idea that the community is one big happy family and has some harsh words for the loudest and most obnoxious members. He says in part: "I don't usually talk about this too much, and hence I figure that people are really not aware of this, but yes, the Open Source community is full of a#@&oles, and I probably more than most others am one of their most favourite targets. I get hate mail for hacking on Open Source. People have started multiple 'petitions' on petition web sites, asking me to stop working (google for it). Recently, people started collecting Bitcoins to hire a hitman for me (this really happened!). Just the other day, some idiot posted a 'song' on youtube, a creepy work, filled with expletives about me and suggestions of violence. People post websites about boycotting my projects, containing pretty personal attacks. On IRC, people /msg me sometimes, with nasty messages, and references to artwork in 4chan style. And there's more. A lot more."

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Lennart Poettering: Open Source Community "Quite a Sick Place To Be In"

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Systemd (Score:3, Insightful)

byAnonymous Coward on Monday October 06, 2014 @03:59PM (#48076299) Lennart is 110% correct, but the rampant, mostly unjustified hatred of systemd is going to discredit what he says. What am I kidding? The "open source" community stopped caring about the effects of their actions years ago. Much easier to just insult Microsoft (with added dollar signs) than worry about your own problems. Share twitter facebook

Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

byAnonymous Coward And if you don't troll, you are still bound to get a lot of negative feedback on account of the fact that you have such a large audience on the internet. Most people don't/can't grasp the concept of hundreds/thousands/millions of people using their product(s) and responding in sometimes unreasonable or irrational ways. The fact that most of it sent directly to the "victim" (for lack of a better word) means the larger public is simply never aware of it.

Re:Systemd AND PULSE AUDIO (Score:4, Insightful)

byJeremiah Cornelius ( 137 ) on Monday October 06, 2014 @04:35PM (#48076693) Homepage Journal Dearest Lennart, You can always go to work for those who adore your thinking - Microsoft and Google. If it looks like the whole world is hurling itself against you? Maybe your headed the wrong direction into oncoming traffic. I don't excuse boorishness or violence - but Linus and Alan Cox never got this level of treatment. Not even Hans Reiser for his obtuseness, nor Bruce Perens for his ability to scrap in an argument. Look at the problem in the mirror. Before your friends need to call an intervention. Parent Share twitter facebook

Re:Systemd AND PULSE AUDIO (Score:5, Informative)

bymooingyak ( 720677 ) on Monday October 06, 2014 @05:16PM (#48077135) Or, in car analogy terms: If one guy tailgates you and then passes you on the right, he's an asshole. If 50 people tailgate you and then pass you on the right, take a goddamn hint. Parent Share twitter facebook

Re:Systemd AND PULSE AUDIO (Score:5, Insightful)

byAnonymous Coward on Monday October 06, 2014 @06:30PM (#48077951) This! Or my favorite version: If you meet an a**hole in the morning. You met an a**hole. If you meet a**holes all day, you're the a**hole. Parent Share twitter facebook

Re:Systemd AND PULSE AUDIO (Score:5, Funny)

byAlterEager ( 1803124 ) on Tuesday October 07, 2014 @04:05AM (#48080955) This! Or my favorite version: If you meet an a**hole in the morning. You met an a**hole. If you meet a**holes all day, you're the a**hole. I don't get it. Sometimes your "s" key works, sometimes it produces a "*". Maybe you'd better get your keyboard fixed. Parent Share twitter facebook

Re:Systemd AND PULSE AUDIO (Score:4, Insightful)

byBarsteward ( 969998 ) on Monday October 06, 2014 @06:54PM (#48078193) people who tailgate are complete dangerous wankers so thats a stupid analogy. Parent Share twitter facebook

Re:In which country? (Score:4, Insightful)

byrnturn ( 11092 ) on Monday October 06, 2014 @11:13PM (#48079933) That's the law in Illinois, too. ``it's quite common where I live to see a bunch of idiots cruising in the left lane with the right lane vacant for a mile or more.'' I see that, too, and I think in many cases it's drivers trying to stay out of the right lane that's been beat up by overweight trucks. Parent Share twitter facebook

Re:Systemd AND PULSE AUDIO (Score:4, Informative)

byamiga3D ( 567632 ) on Tuesday October 07, 2014 @04:13PM (#48086283) It makes you seem like a dipshit to fail to understand that you aren't supposed to be in the far left lane unless you are passing the car in the left. That's the law. I don't know how many times I've been on I-75 behind a dipshit like you running a snail race against the car in the right. The car in the right lane speeds up, you speed up. The car in the right lane slows down, you slow down. Now you know why everyone flips your stupid ass off as they finally pass you on the right side you smug, self righteous bastard. Parent Share twitter facebook

Re:Systemd AND PULSE AUDIO (Score:5, Informative)

bydrnb ( 2434720 ) on Monday October 06, 2014 @05:11PM (#48077089) "Lennart, I knew Hans Reiser. Hans Reiser was a friend of mine. Lennart Poettering, you're no Hans Reiser." For those that don't get the above: "Hans Thomas Reiser is an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, and convicted murderer. He is the creator and primary developer of the ReiserFS computer file system, which is contained within the Linux kernel ... Reiser was convicted of the first degree murder of his wife, Nina Reiser, who disappeared in September 2006. He subsequently pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder, as part of a settlement agreement that included disclosing the location of his wife's body, revealed to be in a shallow grave near the couple's home." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H... [wikipedia.org] Parent Share twitter facebook

Re:Systemd AND PULSE AUDIO (Score:5, Interesting)

byJeremiah Cornelius ( 137 ) on Monday October 06, 2014 @07:56PM (#48078743) Homepage Journal I happen to know a bit - if not a fair amount - about the advantages and drawbacks of plain-text vs binary formats for I/O, and the brittleness of dependencies that are expressed through binary formats vs. parsing text. The beauty and glory and travesty that are *NIX are living testimony to this. The trail of RSTS/E, MVS, VMS, DOS, MacOS, Windows.last and Android.next all demonstrate why POSIX-style systems, built on the "do one thing well" philosophy, with mostly human-readable text-based IO have longevity and are the leveragable core technology under most, more transient, graphical user shells. SystemD is an abortion. It appeals to RedHat - who stacked the deck and manipulated the governing process to have it adopted by Debian. If they want an OS built like that? They can license the VMS sources and make their OWN copy of NT. Hooks that fuckup a system, tying init to specific libraries and specific builds of individual device initialization and volume mapping schemes are a step back into darkness - and a cult of experts with necessary commercial funding. This is the breakdown of Open Source vs Free Software from a movement/philosophical POV. The result of a Linux kernel tied to SystemD and PulseAudio approaches is similar to that of Android - where meaningful work is done by arcane parts of a system that relegates kernel function to the most undifferentiated commodity tasks, and source availability is almost irrelevant - because changes and fixes occur through closed processes, against a code base that is inaccessibly dense and full of binary dependency. Parent Share twitter facebook

Re:Systemd (Score:5, Insightful)

byLWATCDR ( 28044 ) on Monday October 06, 2014 @04:16PM (#48076493) Homepage Journal In a "civil" world this is how things should work. Statement:I think this technical solution is better. Reply: No and here is the reason why. In a world where "civil has descended to the Jr. High level. Statment: You morons are doing it wrong. Reply: You're an idiot. In a world that is terribly out of control. Reply: A threat of violence and or sexual assault. That is never justified. And frankly that is what is happening here. Parent Share twitter facebook

Re:Systemd (Score:4, Insightful)

bySomebody Is Using My ( 985418 ) on Monday October 06, 2014 @05:27PM (#48077257) Homepage While I agree with the above, I think that Poettering is incorrect in his assessment that the "Open Source Community" is a sick place to be. This problem is not just limited to that particular group; it is endemic on the Internet. But its not really limited to that either, because people have been making those sorts of comments (e.g., "Man, some days I'd really like to kill my boss") throughout history; they aren't meant seriously and are just a method of expressing spleen. The Internet just provides a larger audience. Open Source advocates, by nature of their dealing with digital products, just happen to be more common and comfortable with the digital medium of the Internet. So I I think it would be more accurate to say that it is the Human Race that is a sick place to be in. Of course, I personally think the bigger problem is taking these comments so seriously. It's just "feeding the trolls" by giving them the audience they desire, providing the sort of feedback that only provokes them - and others - into worse and worse behavior in order to get attention. After all, if everybody is already screaming at the top of their lungs, even a "normal person" (is there such a thing?) might feel obligated to use a bullhorn to get his message out. Parent Share twitter facebook

Re: (Score:3, Funny)

byAnonymous Coward You're a moron and you're doing it wrong.