5 ms·

Linux China, which supported the Chinese open source community, has ended

73 points by nogajun 2y ago

roenxi 2y ago
The irony here for me is thick, reading the article through a machine translation, but this could be the first instance I've seen of LLMs triggering a forced major life decision. Although I'm a bit late to that party, since this is surely a huge ripple working its way through the world. The best of times, the worst of times.
- mmh0000 2y ago
  This is not the first time LLMs have triggered a major life descision. Here's an article from March 2023 https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkadgm/man-dies-by-suicide-after-talking-with-ai-chatbot-widow-says https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkadgm/man-dies-by-suicide-a...
greatgib 2y ago
As not Chinese, I never heard about this website. But here is my tldr based on reading the page through Google translate: linux.cn was a personal initiative, globally a one man shop that became too big. His goal was to advance the community but not do a commercial business. Nowadays Linux and open source are well known and leaving by themselves. Not so many persons are motivated to contribute anymore and so the single activity was creating posts based on chatgpt translation of English articles (personal comment, I don't think that the content interest was that great based on that). So in the end, as often, the editor finished in burned out as being jobless at the same time and just decided to stop working on that and going on with his life. To be noted the guy looks great as he preferred not sell his domain name/site to crappy buyers for moral reasons and not getting a very good cash payment
- faitswulff 2y ago
  Another detail is that Chinese people generally retire at 50, and turning 50 prompted the author to reevaluate what they were doing and write this post.
  - Havoc 2y ago
    Interesting. How does that work out financially? 50 seems quite early by western standards
    - killingtime74 2y ago
      Children old enough to look after parents by then. Traditionally not much of a concept of pension or retirement savings. Source: Chinese. My dad and us lived with his parents, looking after them. We're not from some village, parents were professionals in Hong Kong.
      - number6 2y ago
        I find this very fascinating, can you eleborate How does this work? Your children move in with you, or your parents move in and then you provide not only for yourself but also for your parents? What do the parents do in the household? 50 isn't an age where you are considered old age... in the west at least.
        killingtime74 2y ago
        So I'm no historian, I believe traditionally the whole family lived together due to lack of money. This happened rurally or in towns. My dad grew up poor and all 8 of them (6 kids) lived in 1 room. Over time kids moved out and the parents transitioned to living with one of the kids, in this case my dad. My dad did well as a professional and provided for all of us including some spending money for my grandparents. My grandma passed away in her 60s so it wasn't long but my grandad stayed with us until the end, no nursing home or anything. It was great because I got to live with him until the end, seeing him every day. My grandad spent most of his time going to yumcha, day trading stocks at the stock brokers offices (very common past time for the elderly in HK), playing majong and cooking. It seemed like a pretty good retirement. He lived to his early 80s. He did retire early by western standards. He was a logistics foreman then a small shopkeeper. The bargain is that he provided for the kids so they then took care of them. Oh also he would have worked longer than most of us, barely finished middle school, definitely no university. I guess I'm the first generation that has broken this long tradition. My parents don't expect to live with me, but would like to live nearby.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
pm2222 2y ago
Basically he’s overloaded, can no longer supports the whole site on his own and there it goes the shutdown.
LorenDB 2y ago
Strangely, there's lots of comments below the post that seem to be a bot posting negative comments. The real people commenting are all very supportive, though.
- danlugo92 2y ago
  In this case thy are obvious. Now imagine all other cases where they aren't (when they are operated by the west).
beardyw 2y ago
> Now there is also the 1263 issue, which has never stopped. I may have missed it but not sure what that is?
- jkhanlar 2y ago
  Google Translate shows me "Now there are 1263 issues, and it has never stopped." if I copy the whole paragraph, but it changes if I remove far away sentences at the opposite end of the paragraph, but I think the grammar in your quote interpretation might be wrong. Basically, it seems like they're burnt out, overwhelmed, and giving up.
  - beardyw 2y ago
    Thanks. I imagined the "1263 issue" to be the thing I hadn't heard about!
- knadeshiko 2y ago
  [dead]
kube-system 2y ago
Interesting that this site posts user agent strings and rough geo-ip locations beside all the comments. I wonder how that would change the dynamic of discussion if it were done on other sites?
- renegade-otter 2y ago
  I believe this is the law in China - if you post on the Internet (especially socially media), your posts MUST be geo-tagged. With social media, past a certain number of followers, you must use your real name. Honestly, that last one is not such a bad rule to be "self-enforced" by social media companies.
  - szundi 2y ago
    How distopian the feeling
    - toxicunderGroov 2y ago
      We could follow up with a talk about etiquette, manners or something instead of going straight for re-education camps
      - resource_waste 2y ago
        Astroturfers made me think, maybe its not so bad. State actors and corporations pretend to be free thinking individuals.
  - em-bee 2y ago
    i don't think so. i haven't seen this anywhere else. the user agent is more likely shown to see which OS the commenters use to give an idea how widespread linux is among the commenters, or maybe to see if someone is a true linux user. and the location to see where everyone is. that may help find local contacts.
    - 2y ago
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

73 points by nogajun 2y ago

The irony here for me is thick, reading the article through a machine translation, but this could be the first instance I've seen of LLMs triggering a forced major life decision. Although I'm a bit late to that party, since this is surely a huge ripple working its way through the world. The best of times, the worst of times.

mmh0000 2y ago
This is not the first time LLMs have triggered a major life descision. Here's an article from March 2023 https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkadgm/man-dies-by-suicide-after-talking-with-ai-chatbot-widow-says https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkadgm/man-dies-by-suicide-a...

greatgib 2y ago

As not Chinese, I never heard about this website. But here is my tldr based on reading the page through Google translate: linux.cn was a personal initiative, globally a one man shop that became too big. His goal was to advance the community but not do a commercial business. Nowadays Linux and open source are well known and leaving by themselves. Not so many persons are motivated to contribute anymore and so the single activity was creating posts based on chatgpt translation of English articles (personal comment, I don't think that the content interest was that great based on that). So in the end, as often, the editor finished in burned out as being jobless at the same time and just decided to stop working on that and going on with his life. To be noted the guy looks great as he preferred not sell his domain name/site to crappy buyers for moral reasons and not getting a very good cash payment

faitswulff 2y ago
Another detail is that Chinese people generally retire at 50, and turning 50 prompted the author to reevaluate what they were doing and write this post.
- Havoc 2y ago
  Interesting. How does that work out financially? 50 seems quite early by western standards
  - killingtime74 2y ago
    Children old enough to look after parents by then. Traditionally not much of a concept of pension or retirement savings. Source: Chinese. My dad and us lived with his parents, looking after them. We're not from some village, parents were professionals in Hong Kong.
    - number6 2y ago
      I find this very fascinating, can you eleborate How does this work? Your children move in with you, or your parents move in and then you provide not only for yourself but also for your parents? What do the parents do in the household? 50 isn't an age where you are considered old age... in the west at least.
      - killingtime74 2y ago
        So I'm no historian, I believe traditionally the whole family lived together due to lack of money. This happened rurally or in towns. My dad grew up poor and all 8 of them (6 kids) lived in 1 room. Over time kids moved out and the parents transitioned to living with one of the kids, in this case my dad. My dad did well as a professional and provided for all of us including some spending money for my grandparents. My grandma passed away in her 60s so it wasn't long but my grandad stayed with us until the end, no nursing home or anything. It was great because I got to live with him until the end, seeing him every day. My grandad spent most of his time going to yumcha, day trading stocks at the stock brokers offices (very common past time for the elderly in HK), playing majong and cooking. It seemed like a pretty good retirement. He lived to his early 80s. He did retire early by western standards. He was a logistics foreman then a small shopkeeper. The bargain is that he provided for the kids so they then took care of them. Oh also he would have worked longer than most of us, barely finished middle school, definitely no university. I guess I'm the first generation that has broken this long tradition. My parents don't expect to live with me, but would like to live nearby.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

pm2222 2y ago

Basically he’s overloaded, can no longer supports the whole site on his own and there it goes the shutdown.

LorenDB 2y ago

Strangely, there's lots of comments below the post that seem to be a bot posting negative comments. The real people commenting are all very supportive, though.

danlugo92 2y ago
In this case thy are obvious. Now imagine all other cases where they aren't (when they are operated by the west).

beardyw 2y ago

> Now there is also the 1263 issue, which has never stopped. I may have missed it but not sure what that is?

jkhanlar 2y ago
Google Translate shows me "Now there are 1263 issues, and it has never stopped." if I copy the whole paragraph, but it changes if I remove far away sentences at the opposite end of the paragraph, but I think the grammar in your quote interpretation might be wrong. Basically, it seems like they're burnt out, overwhelmed, and giving up.
- beardyw 2y ago
  Thanks. I imagined the "1263 issue" to be the thing I hadn't heard about!
knadeshiko 2y ago
[dead]

kube-system 2y ago

Interesting that this site posts user agent strings and rough geo-ip locations beside all the comments. I wonder how that would change the dynamic of discussion if it were done on other sites?

renegade-otter 2y ago
I believe this is the law in China - if you post on the Internet (especially socially media), your posts MUST be geo-tagged. With social media, past a certain number of followers, you must use your real name. Honestly, that last one is not such a bad rule to be "self-enforced" by social media companies.
- szundi 2y ago
  How distopian the feeling
  - toxicunderGroov 2y ago
    We could follow up with a talk about etiquette, manners or something instead of going straight for re-education camps
    - resource_waste 2y ago
      Astroturfers made me think, maybe its not so bad. State actors and corporations pretend to be free thinking individuals.
- em-bee 2y ago
  i don't think so. i haven't seen this anywhere else. the user agent is more likely shown to see which OS the commenters use to give an idea how widespread linux is among the commenters, or maybe to see if someone is a true linux user. and the location to see where everyone is. that may help find local contacts.
  - 2y ago

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]