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Why on earth do systemd haters insist on capitalizing the D? It's really amazing how people think mistyping the name is some kind of useful or novel criticism o

by ripdog 7y ago

Why on earth do systemd haters insist on capitalizing the D? It's really amazing how people think mistyping the name is some kind of useful or novel criticism of the software.

silversconfused 7y ago
It's a classic joke. http://catb.org/jargon/html/S/studlycaps.html http://catb.org/jargon/html/S/studlycaps.html
teddyh 7y ago
However juvenile, it is useful – as soon someone writes “SystemD”, I know that they’re either very inexperienced and don’t really know much, or they’re deliberately being spiteful and want to signal their hatred to other haters. Either way, I then know that I can safely ignore them completely, since they’re not part of a constructive conversation.
- JdeBP 7y ago
  I've been pointing out that people do this, for some time. * https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2016/08/msg00547.html https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2016/08/msg00547.html * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14171389 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14171389
dane-pgp 7y ago
I think that giving unflattering nicknames to powerful entities is a long-standing tradition, and a valid act of protest and free expression. Of course it won't convince an opponent, and it may backfire as a rhetorical device, but I empathise with people wanting to use it. Moreover, the term "System D" is somewhat synonymous with the term "black market", which Wikipedia defines as a: "series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality or is characterized by some form of noncompliant behavior with an institutional set of rules." That is a surprisingly good analogy for how systemd acts on a machine, but there is another analogy to a similarly worded term: "Substance D", from the novel "A Scanner Darkly". In the novel, it is described as an addictive psychoactive drug, also known as "Slow Death". Credit for that comparison goes to this foundational criticism of systemd: https://lkml.org/lkml/2014/8/12/459 https://lkml.org/lkml/2014/8/12/459
craigsmansion 7y ago
the -d suffix is traditionally for service daemons. SystemD is not a service daemon. Lowercase is a UNIX convention. SystemD does not have a UNIX approach. Since SystemD is not a Unix service daemon it shouldn't be spelled "systemd" to prevent confusion.
- eropple 7y ago
  This is...bizarre. Should I pejoratively call you "CRaIg" because I think you don't match up to my standards of what a Craig, or even a craig, is? Is that okay? I don't think it's okay. Names have meaning. It is a really minor bit of respect to use them correctly.
  - yellowapple 7y ago
    I think you replied to the wrong comment.
  - craigsmansion 7y ago
    I don't follow. As you state yourself, "names have meaning". By conventions the developers actively disregard, the meaning of the name "systemd" implies several things that the program is not.

by ripdog 7y ago

Why on earth do systemd haters insist on capitalizing the D? It's really amazing how people think mistyping the name is some kind of useful or novel criticism of the software.

silversconfused 7y ago

It's a classic joke. http://catb.org/jargon/html/S/studlycaps.html http://catb.org/jargon/html/S/studlycaps.html

teddyh 7y ago

However juvenile, it is useful – as soon someone writes “SystemD”, I know that they’re either very inexperienced and don’t really know much, or they’re deliberately being spiteful and want to signal their hatred to other haters. Either way, I then know that I can safely ignore them completely, since they’re not part of a constructive conversation.

JdeBP 7y ago
I've been pointing out that people do this, for some time. * https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2016/08/msg00547.html https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2016/08/msg00547.html * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14171389 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14171389

dane-pgp 7y ago

I think that giving unflattering nicknames to powerful entities is a long-standing tradition, and a valid act of protest and free expression. Of course it won't convince an opponent, and it may backfire as a rhetorical device, but I empathise with people wanting to use it. Moreover, the term "System D" is somewhat synonymous with the term "black market", which Wikipedia defines as a: "series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality or is characterized by some form of noncompliant behavior with an institutional set of rules." That is a surprisingly good analogy for how systemd acts on a machine, but there is another analogy to a similarly worded term: "Substance D", from the novel "A Scanner Darkly". In the novel, it is described as an addictive psychoactive drug, also known as "Slow Death". Credit for that comparison goes to this foundational criticism of systemd: https://lkml.org/lkml/2014/8/12/459 https://lkml.org/lkml/2014/8/12/459

craigsmansion 7y ago

the -d suffix is traditionally for service daemons. SystemD is not a service daemon. Lowercase is a UNIX convention. SystemD does not have a UNIX approach. Since SystemD is not a Unix service daemon it shouldn't be spelled "systemd" to prevent confusion.

eropple 7y ago
This is...bizarre. Should I pejoratively call you "CRaIg" because I think you don't match up to my standards of what a Craig, or even a craig, is? Is that okay? I don't think it's okay. Names have meaning. It is a really minor bit of respect to use them correctly.
- yellowapple 7y ago
  I think you replied to the wrong comment.
- craigsmansion 7y ago
  I don't follow. As you state yourself, "names have meaning". By conventions the developers actively disregard, the meaning of the name "systemd" implies several things that the program is not.