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Occurences of swearing in the Linux kernel source code over time

vidarholen.net

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Re: Occurences of swearing in the Linux kernel source code over time

#51

Post by endmin »

mschuster91 wrote: post #34
endmin wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Let's set Linus' personal opinion aside [1] - the fact is, the Linux kernel team hasn't had much of a say in that matter. Both the European Union and the US have sanctioned a lot of things related to Russia ever since the invasion of Ukraine, and if there is one thing where "better ask for forgiveness than for approval" is a very, very bad idea it is straying too close to the edge of sanctions laws. These things don'…

True, I see your point, though it is sad.

Re: Occurences of swearing in the Linux kernel source code over time

#52

Post by Arainach »

javcasas wrote: post #48
Arainach wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopefully in a few decades the last of the people who think that using respectful discourse means no fun can be had will be gone and we can stop rehashing these threads. You're contributing to something that runs on billions of devices across the world and is maintained by people around the world of all types. If you can't describe your code, your reasons, and your notes politely, do better.

There are two types of people: the ones that write the code, find the bugs (including hardware ones), find the bad design decisions (including the ones they wrote themselves)... and the ones that complain that they found a swearword in the source code they never see because compilation step. Or as they say in the army: do, lead, or get out of the way.

There are far more than two types; all of the most effective programmers I've ever worked with can do everything you mentioned and write professionally.

If we have to boil it down to two types, however, I'd split it as "people who think they can do everything themselves and only the code matters" and "people who build effective teams capable of far more than themselves solo", and it's the second group that does the most impressive things. Being professional and respectful is quite beneficial for that group.

Re: Occurences of swearing in the Linux kernel source code over time

#53

Post by thrwwy451 »

Arainach wrote: post #40
holowoodman wrote: post #2

Theory: the shift towards lesser swearwords is a sign of corporatization, making the linux source a soulless bland hellscape of confirmity.

Hopefully in a few decades the last of the people who think that using respectful discourse means no fun can be had will be gone and we can stop rehashing these threads. You're contributing to something that runs on billions of devices across the world and is maintained by people around the world of all types. If you can't describe your code, your reasons, and your notes politely, do better.

It happens to run on billions of devices, after corporations realized they can profit from "a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu)".

> and is maintained by people around the world of all types.

You seem to think that the whole world shares your definition of "polite". After living in a few quite different countries, I have to disagree. The diversity out there is huge. There's no point trying to solve this "problem", it's an impossible task.

Re: Occurences of swearing in the Linux kernel source code over time

#54

Post by 0x000xca0xfe »

bonoboTP wrote: post #37
bowsamic wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strange to make such a point based on what you expect to happen when clicking on the link would immediately show the opposite to be the case. But I guess you didn’t need to do that bc you already “knew” the swear words would fall?

It seems like absolute count of occurrences, not normalized to codebase size. Even more informative would be to plot the occurance rate within new code.

OKR for H2: Increase edginess of Linux for a less corporate feel

Key result: Boost occurrence of swearwords by 20%

Key result: Create a new metric that tracks relative swearword use per line YoY

Key result: Attract at least 100 comments on HN or Reddit about the new code

Re: Occurences of swearing in the Linux kernel source code over time

#55

Post by javcasas »

Arainach wrote: post #52
javcasas wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are two types of people: the ones that write the code, find the bugs (including hardware ones), find the bad design decisions (including the ones they wrote themselves)... and the ones that complain that they found a swearword in the source code they never see because compilation step. Or as they say in the army: do, lead, or get out of the way.

There are far more than two types; all of the most effective programmers I've ever worked with can do everything you mentioned and write professionally. If we have to boil it down to two types, however, I'd split it as "people who think they can do everything themselves and only the code matters" and "people who build effective teams capable of far more than themselves solo", and it's the second group that does the m…

It's great that you can do/lead and write professionally. But, in any case, writing professionally shouldn't take priority over doing/leading.

Otherwise we wouldn't have the Linux kernel; and I bet the swearing guy behind it got more stuff done and made a bigger difference than the combination of the most effective programmers you have ever met.

Re: Occurences of swearing in the Linux kernel source code over time

#56

Post by holowoodman »

Arainach wrote: post #52
javcasas wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are two types of people: the ones that write the code, find the bugs (including hardware ones), find the bad design decisions (including the ones they wrote themselves)... and the ones that complain that they found a swearword in the source code they never see because compilation step. Or as they say in the army: do, lead, or get out of the way.

There are far more than two types; all of the most effective programmers I've ever worked with can do everything you mentioned and write professionally. If we have to boil it down to two types, however, I'd split it as "people who think they can do everything themselves and only the code matters" and "people who build effective teams capable of far more than themselves solo", and it's the second group that does the m…

I would say that a swearword where a swearword is due is actually effective and professional. Dancing around an issue and trying to be polite wastes time and effort, a well-placed swearword directs eyes, ears and effort to where they need to be.

Re: Occurences of swearing in the Linux kernel source code over time

#57

Post by roryirvine »

d3m0t3p wrote: post #3

You can check company names too ! It's interesting to see that by default, the graph shows google,apple. But adding meta, and IBM really changes the plot. Meta went from 2K to 10K+ from 2018 to 2025. While IBM seems to have stopped contributing in 2008. Since they the merging with RedHat, I would have expected to see them increase again but none of RedHat / IBM seems to have increase. https://www.vidarholen.net/conte…

LWN publish better stats for every kernel release - the most recent (for 6.15) can be found at https://lwn.net/Articles/1022414/

So RedHat were the third largest employer by number of changesets (after Intel and Google), IBM were 15th - but, by number of lines changed, they were 5th and 4th respectively.

Re: Occurences of swearing in the Linux kernel source code over time

#59

Post by darkwater »

bravetraveler wrote: post #39
darkwater wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They went up, actually. "crap" skyrocketed in the last years, and the rest were more or less stable.

> They went up, actually. "crap" skyrocketed in the last years, and the rest were more or less stable. To their point, I would consider "crap" a lesser swear. More "fuck" or "shit" would counter-intuitively imply... certain qualities [by not being so conformist]

And what about damn then? Is that even a swear word?

Re: Occurences of swearing in the Linux kernel source code over time

#60

Post by eyeris »

holowoodman wrote: post #2

Theory: the shift towards lesser swearwords is a sign of corporatization, making the linux source a soulless bland hellscape of confirmity.

At a previous company, legend had it that swear words in code were banned because of an incident. A vendor was called in to debug a platform error which led to a code review. In the code reviewed, there were many expletives cussing out the vendor for undocumented behavior in their platform.
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