Crossposted from https://lemmy.cafe/post/28218826

While the Linux kernel has inclusive terminology guidelines for the past five years to replace phrases like master/slave and blacklist/whitelist, there has surprisingly been a “genocide” function within the kernel that was questioned when it was first submitted for inclusion but now removed in Linux 6.19.

Introduced to the Linux kernel back in 2023 was the d_genocide() function as part of various dcache updates to the kernel. The genocide name was questioned when the patches were first posted by longtime Linux developer Al Viro

  • Kn1ghtDigital@lemmy.zipEnglish
    303·
    3 days ago

    Yeah, this stuff hits different now. Bothered me in IT to use the S/M terminology professionally. Opted to use client and host whenever possible and others had a hard time understanding why.

    • foggy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      112·
      3 days ago

      Seeing the same with whitelist/blacklist changing to allowlist/denylist. I personally would vote greenlist and redlist, but I have no power here.

      Also have heard mention of the problem of male/female connectors nomenclature.

      • Holytimes@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        92·
        3 days ago

        People really need to get it though their fucking heads that English sucks and just cause both sex and gender use the same word doesn’t mean they mean the same thing.

        Homonyms suck. But the male sex and male gender are two different things. Sex is and always will be a three options thing. Male, female or both.

        Gender is not sex, sex is not gender.

        But I always heard people say the word homonyms is bigoted and I just can’t at this point.

        We built our language around humans and land mammals. We arnt mushrooms with 3000+ sexs. It sucks but we unless we can get people to start inventing new words somethings just have to be delt with.

        The slave master and white and black lists have valid understandable other options and we should use them.

        But short literally any other option for plugs is just going to be confusing or create arbitrary nonsense. Plug A and B would work but there’s no fucking world that doesn’t just end up with every other company or industry labeling things wrong or backwards compared to their competitors.

        And when your working with electricity YOU DO NOT WANT CONFUSION.

      • P03 Locke@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        4·
        3 days ago

        Some things bothered me, and seemed worth the removal, like “slave”. MySQL 8.0 deprecated it, and 8.4 removes it entirely.

        But, the whole white/blacklist thing seemed like we’re making color associations that don’t really exist.

        • dondelelcaro@lemmy.worldEnglish
          51·
          3 days ago

          I use allowlist and blocklist instead because it’s clearer. Or rejectlist or banlist or acceptlist or whatever verb more accurately conveys what the list is doing. White/Black are frequently not clear enough.

        • DomeGuy@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          3 days ago

          It’s not racism. It’s just that sysadmins are goths who prefer dark mode, and were esthetically aggravated by the discordant terminology.

      • tourist@lemmy.worldEnglish
        33·
        3 days ago

        Also have heard mention of the problem of male/female connectors nomenclature.

        Do you know what the forerunners for replacement are?

        If it were up to me, I’d go with weed/lungs. Thank god it’s not up to me

        • foggy@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          3 days ago

          I mean honestly if it were my call, I’d refer to the connectors as penile or vaginal, just to clarify anything that might’ve been misconstrued with male/female connectors. Malicious compliance.

          • Holytimes@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            11·
            3 days ago

            Iv legit heard someone call that terminology bigoted. You literally CANT win with plugs. Iv tried. Iv tried hard.

            • prettybunnys@piefed.socialEnglish
              12·
              3 days ago

              Well they’re dumbasses then, because it’s using baseball as the metaphor.

              One side pitches the ball to the other. Ball goes in glove.

              It’s silly because pitching and catching are older terms for top and bottom.

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.caEnglish
    58·
    3 days ago

    Yeah I don’t see this as an issue

    Usiy the word to convey a certain meaning or intent doesn’t mean you condone it, it doesn’t mean I have Hitler posters on the wall.

    Same as master/slave; I don’t have a dungeon filled with human beings that have to do everything I say. I do have a database setup with a master and multiple slaves. I don’t condone slavery btw, one would think that is obvious

    Want more? How about male/female plugs? Need to van those words too now because somehow that is sexist? Am I excluding transgender people for not having a trans plug? Should we rename those to… I do t even know! We call them that because it makes sense, one goes inside the other, and maybe, juuuuust maybe we shouldn’t read too much into it?

    How about killing all my children! Oh shit, I am an insane mass murderer now! Worse? How about forking a child process? Ooooh shiiiiit, now I am a pedophile! Except that, yeah, no, all that too are just words we use to easily explain relationships between processes on computers, and how we duplicate processes or end them, and we use those words because they make intuitive sense. But, I guess that too soon willl be an issue.

    I can’t wait for the kill command to be renamed to “snuggle” or something.

    • justme@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      22·
      3 days ago

      Most astonishing for me, that it’s still called Master bedroom and bathroom, which has that direct origin. The software example on the other hand are just fitting words for the interaction of electronic devices or software pieces…

      • who@feddit.orgEnglish
        4·
        2 days ago

        Most astonishing for me, that it’s still called Master bedroom and bathroom, which has that direct origin.

        The word master does not originate from slavery. If you study the etymology, you’ll also find that it significantly predates slave, and has more than a few meanings that are not even remotely related to slavery.

        • stickly@lemmy.worldEnglish
          6·
          3 days ago

          IIRC master was the normal ass English word for your superior in any type of subservient role (employees, servants, indentured, school children, etc…). In the “Master Bedroom” instance, master makes sense as the title of a household patriarch.

          As soon as they started forcing non-whites into new world chattel slavery, all tiers of white classes suddenly thought it was degrading to use the same word they forced on the lesser races. This is where English started adapting new words for the old usage of master, such as boss from the Dutch baas.

          If anything, refusing to use master in any context is far more racist than normal usage. You’re perpetuating the idea that a word’s use by slaves automatically (and retroactively) sullies it for all time.