Brief items

Several people including Linus requested to change the KAISER name. We came up with a list of technically correct acronyms:

User Address Space Separation, prefix uass_

Forcefully Unmap Complete Kernel With Interrupt Trampolines, prefix fuckwit_

but we are politically correct people so we settled for

Kernel Page Table Isolation, prefix kpti_

Linus, your call :)

I'm not set on MAP_REQUIRED. I came up with some awful names (MAP_TODDLER, MAP_TANTRUM, MAP_ULTIMATUM, MAP_BOSS, MAP_PROGRAM_MANAGER, etc). But I think we should drop FIXED from the middle of the name.

While there is truth to what you say, and while it's a point that gets brought up pretty much every time the issue of non-free firmware is discussed, it is not a problem Debian can solve. We don't produce the hardware, we have little say in the choice of the hardware, and there is little we can do fix the freedom-related problems of software embedded in or too [tightly] dependent on hardware - except that we can explain the problems and pros and cons of possible solutions and maybe point to less-problematic hardware choices. The result of this is not a perfect world, but it might be a better world.

I think we do need to reach out to Google, who seems to have a habit of poaching our developers, and work out some kind of arrangement of cooperation. The sum total of stuff I've received from Google has been a prototype Chromebook, a $50 prepaid VISA card, and a google blanket. No, I am not making this up. I know these items were sent to me with the intention of saying thanks, and meant as the kindest of gestures -- but certainly, there are better ways for us to support one another?

Google has received some nice technology from Gentoo. The google blanket is nice and fluffy, but I would like to see Gentoo have a bit more ability to positively engage with Google and other organizations -- this was the vision of the original not-for-profit that I created -- building the future with partners who value free software.

We don't need to put ourselves through unnecessary pain out of some sense of self-flagellation for using non-free software in a situation where it's unavoidable without replacing hardware. GNU software went to extensive effort to be easily and painlessly installable on non-free operating systems because the FSF recognized that this compromise was good for the overall political cause of free software. I believe this is similar.

This is going to be a pointless never ending debate. Git is flexible enough to let you do this in multiple ways, people are going to have their preferences. Just agree to disagree and move on.

I mean, come on. It took years for vim to win the editor wars. We don't have time to waste on another debate like that ;)

We've won on so many fronts, but we've also lost our way. It would have been unthinkable and scandalous even a decade ago for a presenter at a Linux conference to use Powerpoint on Windows, but you only have to count the Macbooks at a modern Linux conferences (even among the presenters!) to see how many in the community have lost the very passion for and principles around Open Source software that drove Linux's success. A vendor who dared to ship their Linux applications as binaries without source code used to get the wrath of the community but these days everyone's pockets are full of proprietary apps that we justify because they sit on top of a bit of Open Source software at the bottom of the stack. We used to rail against proprietary protocols and push for open standards but today while Linux dominates the cloud, everyone interacts with it through layers of closed and proprietary APIs.

Linux has become the vegetable we batter in proprietary software and deep fry--sure more people will eat it that way but it's not nearly as good for you. Over time we've all started eating our vegetables that way and it's made our community unhealthy. In our healthier days we fought and won against proprietary software giants like Microsoft, Sun, and Oracle, but in the meantime our appetites have changed and other giants have taken their place.

Writing Haskell is almost trivial in practice. You just start with the magic fifty line {-# LANGUAGE ... #-} incantation to fast-forward to 2017, then add 150 libraries that you’ve blessed by trial and error to your cabal file, and then just write down a single type signature whose inhabitant is Refl to your program. In fact if your program is longer than your import list you’re clearly doing Haskell all wrong.