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mjg59Edit: About two months after this was written, Intel committed to a large scale diversity initiative. Actions speak louder than words, and this was an effective repudiation of the behaviour described below. I've happily worked on Intel-related issues since then.
A lot of the kernel work I've ended up doing has involved dealing with bugs on Intel-based systems - figuring out interactions between their hardware and firmware, reverse engineering features that they refuse to document, improving their power management support, handling platform integration stuff for their GPUs and so on. Some of this I've been paid for, but a bunch has been unpaid work in my spare time[1].
Recently, as part of the anti-women #GamerGate campaign[2], a set of awful humans convinced Intel to terminate an advertising campaign because the site hosting the campaign had dared to suggest that the sexism present throughout the gaming industry might be a problem. Despite being awful humans, it is absolutely their right to request that a company choose to spend its money in a different way. And despite it being a dreadful decision, Intel is obviously entitled to spend their money as they wish. But I'm also free to spend my unpaid spare time as I wish, and I no longer wish to spend it doing unpaid work to enable an abhorrently-behaving company to sell more hardware. I won't be working on any Intel-specific bugs. I won't be reverse engineering any Intel-based features[3]. If the backlight on your laptop with an Intel GPU doesn't work, the number of fucks I'll be giving will fail to register on even the most sensitive measuring device.
On the plus side, this is probably going to significantly reduce my gin consumption.
[1] In the spirit of full disclosure: in some cases this has resulted in me being sent laptops in order to figure stuff out, and I was not always asked to return those laptops. My current laptop was purchased by me.
[2] I appreciate that there are some people involved in this campaign who earnestly believe that they are working to improve the state of professional ethics in games media. That is a worthy goal! But you're allying yourself to a cause that disproportionately attacks women while ignoring almost every other conflict of interest in the industry. If this is what you care about, find a new way to do it - and perhaps deal with the rather more obvious cases involving giant corporations, rather than obsessing over indie developers.
For avoidance of doubt, any comments arguing this point will be replaced with the phrase "Fart fart fart".
[3] Except for the purposes of finding entertaining security bugs
A lot of the kernel work I've ended up doing has involved dealing with bugs on Intel-based systems - figuring out interactions between their hardware and firmware, reverse engineering features that they refuse to document, improving their power management support, handling platform integration stuff for their GPUs and so on. Some of this I've been paid for, but a bunch has been unpaid work in my spare time[1].
Recently, as part of the anti-women #GamerGate campaign[2], a set of awful humans convinced Intel to terminate an advertising campaign because the site hosting the campaign had dared to suggest that the sexism present throughout the gaming industry might be a problem. Despite being awful humans, it is absolutely their right to request that a company choose to spend its money in a different way. And despite it being a dreadful decision, Intel is obviously entitled to spend their money as they wish. But I'm also free to spend my unpaid spare time as I wish, and I no longer wish to spend it doing unpaid work to enable an abhorrently-behaving company to sell more hardware. I won't be working on any Intel-specific bugs. I won't be reverse engineering any Intel-based features[3]. If the backlight on your laptop with an Intel GPU doesn't work, the number of fucks I'll be giving will fail to register on even the most sensitive measuring device.
On the plus side, this is probably going to significantly reduce my gin consumption.
[1] In the spirit of full disclosure: in some cases this has resulted in me being sent laptops in order to figure stuff out, and I was not always asked to return those laptops. My current laptop was purchased by me.
[2] I appreciate that there are some people involved in this campaign who earnestly believe that they are working to improve the state of professional ethics in games media. That is a worthy goal! But you're allying yourself to a cause that disproportionately attacks women while ignoring almost every other conflict of interest in the industry. If this is what you care about, find a new way to do it - and perhaps deal with the rather more obvious cases involving giant corporations, rather than obsessing over indie developers.
For avoidance of doubt, any comments arguing this point will be replaced with the phrase "Fart fart fart".
[3] Except for the purposes of finding entertaining security bugs
no subject
Date: 2014-10-03 11:36 pm (UTC)-- http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/28232.html
ha!
Date: 2014-10-04 12:58 am (UTC)I'd buy you a beer after the hated Oracle world traffic bonanza departs this corner of SF.
One Word
Date: 2014-10-04 03:33 am (UTC)Intel is inclusive
Date: 2014-10-04 07:06 am (UTC)I believe, and I don't really know, that Intel is not supporting the side you believe, but more precisely trying to avoid any controversy. I do applaud your stance of not working unpaid any more, for you do good work and should be properly recompensed for it.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-04 09:02 am (UTC)Thanks for your contribution!
Re: This Author is Wack
Date: 2014-10-04 09:07 am (UTC)Still, out of curiosity, does Free Software needs you?
no subject
Date: 2014-10-04 09:18 am (UTC)Please, try doing some due diligence before judging if someone is deemed worth being part of open source community.
Re: I'd just like to interject for a moment.
Date: 2014-10-04 09:25 am (UTC)Matthew has many contributions in the Linux kernel. So when he says "Linux" he probably really meant "Linux", not "GNU/Linux", "GNU plus Linux", "Busybox+musl/Linux", nor even "GNU/Hurd".
no subject
Date: 2014-10-04 09:28 am (UTC)I'm really unsure if you're a parody or your serious, but if the latter how does caring about landmines and human slavery prevent you from caring from sexism?
Re: Hello
Date: 2014-10-04 09:35 am (UTC)do you realize that what you said can be applied to itself?
Re: Good
Date: 2014-10-04 09:46 am (UTC)Just reading Matthew's blog should demonstrate his technical value and I'm not really used to trust accusations done by any random Anonymous on the Internet.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-04 09:53 am (UTC)one says that "you've decided to screw over every Linux user on earth" and the other one says "you won't be missed".
Care to discuss?
Re: reddit thread has been censored
Date: 2014-10-04 09:56 am (UTC)Re: See ya.
Date: 2014-10-04 09:59 am (UTC)"Coding" like in the Free Software movement?
Btw, saying "politics has no place in coding" is a very political statement, so I'm not sure what's the point.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-04 10:02 am (UTC)for full disclosure, what's yours?
no subject
Date: 2014-10-04 10:54 am (UTC)I disagree 100% with it, I think it's childish and stupid, but calling him out on it is where it should end. There is no reason to bring his employer into it.
Re: Hmm
Date: 2014-10-04 02:17 pm (UTC)Re: Why punish Linux users?
Date: 2014-10-04 02:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-04 03:22 pm (UTC)Not because I have real criticisms to make on Wayland or a bias in favour of X.org or Mir, because I have a bias towards the Red Hatters and ex-Red Hatters imbecile, eating-everything, bloatwarophile, dictatorial point-of-view on how free operating systems have to be made. To be honest there's really nothing that wrong for the dictorial part, but the rest really brought us a shitty linux. And if you stop supporting Intel drivers, you devs kill GNOME, GTK and Wayland.
So your white knight sabotage is cool, thanks useful tool.
So let me get this straight...
Date: 2014-10-04 04:47 pm (UTC)Re: Gamergate is NOT about misogyny
Date: 2014-10-04 05:31 pm (UTC)"Fart fart fart fart"
and as such has been screened for irrelevance.
Re: Listen to This Please
Date: 2014-10-04 05:32 pm (UTC)"Fart fart fart fart"
and as such has been screened for irrelevance.
Re: certainly?
Date: 2014-10-04 05:33 pm (UTC)"Fart fart fart fart"
and as such has been screened for irrelevance.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-04 05:33 pm (UTC)"Fart fart fart fart"
and as such has been screened for irrelevance.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-04 05:34 pm (UTC)"Fart fart fart fart"
and as such has been screened for irrelevance.