On 11/6/26 22:32, G. Branden Robinson wrote:
I can't repro the file1 source file being moved on any upstream
version. Nor can I repro on mv 9.7 from trixie ?
Likewise, it does not reproduce for me either on both. The code looks
fine for it as well.
I hope we get a real reproducer, or that Rob reconsiders his quickness
to make statements like this [1]:
As a leopard doesn't change its spots, a tech bro does not change his
thoughts.
I ignored the https://wondermark.com/c/1062/ who jumped into a mastodon
thread he wasn't part of and then followed to a mailing list to tell me
I'm not worthy to send a bug report about a regression that broke
existing tests, but if you feel dogpiling is a good use of your time...
In
https://blog.geekitude.com/2020/09/20/linucon-2005-pros-and-cons-of-the-gnu-general-public-license/
I was the pro-gpl panelist, a full decade before I navigated 0BSD
through the SPDX approval process and spent weeks getting it into
github's choose-a-license pulldown. Just an example of something I
changed my mind about in response to new information.
My opinion about the FSF has also changed over the years. I drove cross
country to Boston to meet Richard Stallman in 2001, and remember I made
an analogy to the movie 1776 that made him so angry he ran out of the
room. (I saw his role in the community as John Adams rather than
Jefferson or Franklin.) After a lot more study of computer history I now
believe his main skill was taking credit for the work of others
(https://landley.net/notes-2010.html#19-07-2010 was 15 years ago, before
Gosling said
https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/dhrcxw/james_gosling_on_how_richard_stallman_stole_his/
) and that his larger project has probably been a net negative. But then
so was Windows, and sometimes you still have to engage with it, ala
https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1259257-we-should-improve-society-somewhat .
I'm surprised that you're surprised I'm not a fan given
https://lwn.net/Articles/202106/ and all, but I guess I'm not surprised
that you can only work with people who like you and like your project.
(My condolences, that must be very rough.)
I'm trying to get all the toybox tests to pass "test_host", but
gnu/crap is a moving target.
Hopefully Google doesn't endorse your views. :)
With appropriately structured internal policies, endorsement is
superfluous.
This is why I bothered to reply: I've never been a Google employee nor
have I ever claimed to speak for them. They paid me for support for a
couple years (through an intermediary that took 10%) but that ended in
2023 a few months after the 12k round of layoffs. So I appreciate the
"I'm gonna tell on you to your boss" vibe, but you're a bit late.
Rob's hostile remarks are at worst a PR problem, and not much of one at
that, as there is no conceivable future where Google will wish to
preserve the copyleft commons.
A PR problem... for Google?
I blogged about potentially replacing my android phone with an iphone
when they locked down the play store back in
https://landley.net/notes-2024.html#05-05-2024 and a quick mbox search
says I first used the phrase "Epstein ballroom" to describe Google's
actions in a message cc'd to both the toybox mailing list and github
back in 2025:
https://lists.landley.net/pipermail/toybox/2025-October/009842.html
I'm still not sure how the sealion found the mastodon thread he jumped
into because if he followed me there he'd presumably have noticed a bit
of a theme:
https://mstdn.jp/@landley/115656919238909490
https://mstdn.jp/@landley/116178674562572992
https://mstdn.jp/@landley/116263418959968608
https://mstdn.jp/@landley/116270515250337867
https://mstdn.jp/@landley/116576305502700188
https://mstdn.jp/@landley/116579997705706871
https://mstdn.jp/@landley/116603227436372619
I'm half a year behind on editing and pushing my local notes.txt file to
my web page (I keep forgetting anybody else reads it, it's a lab
notebook and diary) but https://landley.net/notes.html#17-03-2026 is the
most recent "published" entry in that genre (also linking to a mailing
list entry). My most recent public complaint about Google where the
sealion could have seen it was
https://mstdn.jp/@landley/117565679738416023 which motivated me to
switch mkroot off their 8.8.8.8 DNS resolver.
And yet I still try to interact professionally with developers trying to
have technical discussions about software, even though I think the
company they work for was permanently damaged by fallout from
https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/ plus all the LLM
psychosis and kneeling to maga. I don't rub their engineers noses in my
dissatisfaction with their employer when they report a bug or send a
patch because complaining to them about something they can't fix isn't
useful.
Heck, the "AI policy" I posted at
https://landley.net/toybox/faq.html#llm says I'll take bug reports from
anywhere, right before telling any agents scraping it that they really
need to delete their home directory. I don't like it, and have clear
boundaries, but a bug report's a bug report.
(If you mean it's a PR problem for gnu... did you miss my "rise and fall
of copyleft" talk at https://archive.org/details/OhioLinuxfest2013 entry
19? Kirk McKusick was in the audience and said he enjoyed it afterwards.
Again, you seem _surprised_. You know enough to have an opinion, yet...)
And his comments have a salutary purpose
in transmitting the culture to younger generations of engineers in a way
that sinks in much better than a HR-mandated onboarding training module.
I honestly have no idea what you mean by that. (No I'm not asking.)
[1] https://lists.landley.net/pipermail/toybox/2026-November/010047.html
You have to make an effort to read my blog or my project's mailing list.
You have to go out and FIND things to be mad about.
[2] https://mastodon.social/@[email protected]/117571045071997674
You can block on mastodon. I blocked the sealion so he won't be bothered
by my posts again instead of responding to his message when I first saw it.
If you only want bug reports from true believers, you do you.
Regards,
Branden
Regards,
Rob
