muckrights-sans-merde
bonum fabula frat
### roys-plan-for-linux-kernel-is-five-years-behind---completely-impractical-and-less-free
*originally posted:* sep 2021
ive been working on another project this week, for ewwfs, but here is an update of sorts.
the main point of this article is in the title, but lets do a side point or two first:
> schestowitz-TR There is a new (yet another) dedicated anti-techrights site and it mostly relies on reading everything in all IRC channels. I've lost track of the number of such sites. They alwasys perish at the end due to lack of interest. Sep 20 11:01
it could happen, though roy is avoiding the point-- level of interest is hardly a measure of truth. if it were, the reality would actually be defined by engagement. roy is in this for pageviews and influence. what sort of "influence" matters.
but its already obvious that roy was being dismissive. pooh-pooh is also a fallacy, but its a favourite of his. roys response to the most recent accusation that he was (once again) misrepresenting the work of a former contributor was "lol".
> and it mostly relies on reading everything in all IRC channels
that isnt quite true either. the irc channels, by their nature, update faster and more frequently than the articles.
ive gone through 15 YEARS of articles, and i have yet to read 2 years worth of irc logs. when 15 years is less than 2 years, roy can make this claim more accurately.
this website is based on personal experience, already-public irc logs which roy himself makes public, and its based on the articles on muckrights.
the articles do take longer to process, irc takes less time, so youll see irc quoted more often.
thats not so unreasonable when you consider that so many of the articles (that roy writes) are based on exchanges in irc!
but its oversimplifying, if not misleading, to simply state that "it mostly relies on reading everything in all IRC channels". thats a fairly superficial take.
now for something roy has been talking about for a while (maybe years) in both articles and irc-- the future of free software.
i wrote maybe 50 articles on this myself, when i used to send articles into muckrights. i can tell you, roy is years behind on this-- and only because he has spent those years ignoring people like myself (and others-- even people who have been in irc for years).
```
Sat 21:07:53 | schestowitz-TR | if you also avoid linux, it's hard
Sat 21:08:05 | schestowitz-TR | and bsd oses have their limitations
Sat 21:08:12 | schestowitz-TR | unless it's a headless server
```
roy never says much of value about bsd, he never goes into detail. he states things that are entirely incorrect, even when he KNOWS theyre incorrect, like about how openbsd doesnt come with x11 (it does) or he insinuates that you need to type "startx" to run it-- you dont, it has a display manager just like virtually every graphical gnu/linux distro.
and even if it didnt, does he seriously think that openbsd is incapable of running things automatically from init? note that openbsd is closer to the original unix than gnu/linux is-- does he think gnu/linux "invented" going to x11 automatically? cmon roy, youre not that stupid-- youre deliberately lying to your audience.
but this isnt just about how roy keeps bashing openbsd for no reason (based on lies even) this is actually about how hes wrong about how to move forward.
roys answer? dont move forward. this isnt new, for example half a year ago he said:
```
schestowitz__ I think this should not be out #1 concern Mar 08 19:20
schestowitz__ we can deal with systemd as vendor lock-in later Mar 08 19:20
```
roys take on systemd isnt honest. he told mincer:
```
MinceR he would have started a campaign against systemd if he did Jan 08 16:04
schestowitz he knows those issues, MinceR Jan 08 16:04
```
no, thats bullshit. roy has stated on more than one occasion that stallman realises systemd is a problem:
=> https://muckrights-sans-merde.neocities.org/the-second-biggest-lie-at-muckrights.html
this is a fabrication-- hes making up things stallman never said.
i know, because i contacted stallman personally and he confirmed what he said on his personal website TEN YEARS AGO this november:
=> https://muckrights-sans-merde.neocities.org/the-bullet-points-that-killed-free-software.html
> I've chosen not to have any preferences among those ethical distros. But I am not in a position to judge them on other criteria: even to try them all would be a lot work that I have no need to do.
STALLMAN
DOES
NOT
CONSIDER
SYSTEMD
A
PROBLEM.
roy lied about that-- to mincer and everybody else. he also lied to me personally, but i only know that from irc! actually i know it from an article he wrote more than a year ago, which specifically mentioned me and said roy is "neutral" or "apathetic"-- both his words-- about systemd. add "dishonest" to the list of things hes been about it.
this is somewhat key to understanding why roys plan is bullshit (and wont work) because it is based on the heavily insinuated falsehood that:
1. stallman knows systemd is a problem (false)
2. thus when the fsf is finally "fixed" it will fight this (false)
3. thus all you have to do is support the fsf (who doesnt actually care about this, never did-- nor did stallman) and they will get around to it (very false)
also, its too late. for more than half a decade people have fought this and lost.
things get a little better, then they get a lot worse.
then they get a little better, then they get a lot worse.
people like roy perpetuate these NON-solutions while things spend years getting worse.
people are already moving on from gnu/linux now, thats why roy is finally pretending hes serious about this. (he isnt).
6 months later, even after being caught putting words he knows are made up in stallmans mouth to make his own points, roy is still campaigning AGAINST fixing this:
```
Sat 21:08:33 | schestowitz-TR | we need _some_ middle ground
Sat 21:08:38 | schestowitz-TR | and work from there
Sat 21:08:45 | schestowitz-TR | to remove what's left that cripples us
```
since the argument is neither based on truth (he lies) or whats possible (years of evidence-- not quite proof yet) what roy is really suggesting we do is nothing.
the "_some_ middle ground" he calls for is what everyone has ALREADY spent 6 or 7 years struggling to hold onto, barely.
it keeps getting worse, not really better. roys indicators of things getting better are fabrications, if-by-whiskey promises and other lies.
nobody is fooled. roy says "we move on" but actually, people move on while he says "stay here!"
one problem with the "middle ground" argument IN THE SAME CONTEXT of roy saying is that its PURE "open source".
free software says "lets be free" and open source says "wait! what about this instead" and free software says "thats not free". open source calls for pointless compromises.
compromises for the sake of moving FORWARD? they happen... NOT quite like roy says:
```
Sat 21:08:51 | schestowitz-TR | I used to use netscape
Sat 21:09:31 | schestowitz-TR | even rms used proprietary unix
```
thats a ridiculous (and likely deliberate) conflation of very different things.
netscape was the PRECURSOR to a free browser. the free browser was based on the source code of netscape (a lot was rewritten) and offered by the same company as what roy was already using.
> even rms used proprietary unix
he actually never did (stallmans words) until he was ALREADY creating a free version of it. this is a pretty distinctive difference. the two have little (nothing important to the argument) to do with each other-- roy is conflating things.
the reason roy is conflating using netscape with stallman creating a free os is because he wants to support the idea that WAITING IS NECESSARY (or beneficial).
but roys argument is stale, its years behind reality and what people are doing, the people who ALREADY took roys "advice" have FAILED.
why are people leaving gnu/linux? because theyre not accepting "middle ground" arguments.
NOPE! they ALREADY spent YEARS on roys stale "middle ground" argument.
theyre leaving BECAUSE after YEARS of seeing the "middle ground" argument FAIL in PRACTICE, theyre looking for HIGHER ground instead-- not higher ground as in some kind of piety, just higher ground as in "everybody below is properly fucked now".
they dont want to be fucked. but roy does, and if you dont, roy will argue for you to do something that doesnt work and then support the argument with fabrications and research he didnt do (that doesnt say what he says it does).
meanwhile, people who wanted to try roys "middle ground" have the same options now they did a few years ago:
they can keep trying to chase after the destruction of gnu/linux, knowing full well its not being fixed as fast as its being destroyed.
roy had YEARS to promote that solution. he WAS (in his own words) still "neutral" or "apathetic" about these options in 2019.
thats not from irc, its from roys own fucking article.
NOW that people are leaving, hes suddenly less "neutral" and less "apathetic?"
well lets look at what he did when people still considered devuan (et. al) a possible solution:
* he pooh-poohed it, directly
* he pretended to care, but the evidence doesnt support his claim
* he discouraged it
* he promoted the same old shit (systemd)
* he told lies about people working on the solutions
THAT was when he DIDNT care about any of this.
now that people have moved on to the next level of fixing this, he takes the NEW stuff people are doing to actually make progress, and:
* he pooh-poohs it, directly
* he pretends to care, but the evidence doesnt support his claim
* he (actively, routinely) discourages it-- my research never supported that, and the reason i went to irc to complain was that he keeps pointing to my research to tell people "dont bother" with newer solutions-- well, thats not what it says or why i wrote it! it doesnt say (or mean) what he says it does-- AND HE TAKES CREDIT when he had NOTHING to do with it, so he can "support" his claims with co-authorship THAT DOESNT EXIST! and im not supposed to complain about that? what the fuck?
* he promotes the same old shit (gnu/linux-- with linux itself being a huge problem, it is basically systemd now and moving more in that direction)
* he told lies about people working on the solutions (and lies about what stallman actually never said)
do you see why i say that roy is full of shit?
its because he is-- shamelessly, and utterly, full of shit.
but, but-- some of the things roy says are true!
yep, those are anchors. if youre going to lie to people all day, you need those anchors (or hooks) to reel people in.
then once you have them where you want them, you lie your fucking arse off; politicians do it all the time.
i dont really have any problemw with epo stuff though. some people are bigger liars than roy. that probably includes the epo. i wouldnt know though, since most of what i know about the epo (not very important to me personally, not in years) is from muckrights.
but then thats part of the game here-- roy gets leaks, rewrites them to sound catchy, those are (probably) fairly accurate.
then take that anchor and write THE REST OF THE SHIT he does.
then people say "well, the epo stuff is very useful, this other stuff must..."
...reek to hell of bullshit, yes.
but dont get me wrong, some people LOVE the smell of bullshit. its still not a favour to lie to your readers.
but if youre full of shit, you can SAY it is.
roy is too late, years behind, but he didnt have to be. he didnt listen (or repeat things in an honest way) because the real solutions dont fit his agenda, so he finds bullshit ways to say they dont work (even when they do, you know) and other ways to disqualify them through handwaving and insinuating.
if he did a proper job disclosing his affiliations, people would know his agenda has nothing to do with solving these problems. roy doesnt NEED to perpetuate user-fucking software PER SE, but he cant afford to get rid of it either-- NOT necessarily for the reasons he says (or rarely bothers to explain) but for other reasons as well.
dont wait around for a change of heart, its been half a decade and hes only now PRETENDING to give a shit about this at all.
if your "new" solution has been tried, failed for years, shows NO sign of working-- maybe thats because you DONT actually give a shit about any of this. after all, youre not telling the truth, youre not paying attention, you insist on favouring things shown not to work over things that are far more promising for a variety of eloquently stated reasons (not just by me, of course)-- maybe you just dont care about real solutions. maybe. and if you dont care about real solutions, what do you care about? bullshit and pageviews, and telling people to do what you want! a growing shrine to tired and self-defeating compromise, dressed up as a plan for the future. havent we all had enough of this sort of "open source" "solution"?
but it sure does get plenty of "engagement!" didnt zdnets shameless trolling manage exactly the same results for years, even decades? (longer than muckrights, which started in 2006). im sure somewhere on muckrights roy makes an argument against engagement as a metric of anything, let alone truth. doesnt matter, he means very little of what he ever says anyway.
=> https://muckrights-sans-merde.neocities.org