Developers complain about gosh-darn censorship.

Mitch Wagner, Executive Editor, Light Reading

December 4, 2018

2 Min Read
Golly! Linux Code Patched to Replace F-Bombs in Comments With 'Hugs'

A Linux developer has released a kernel patch that edits comments to replace uses of the F-word with "hugs."

The patches, released Friday by Jarkko Sakkinen, who works at Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC), are designed to put the Linux kernel in compliance with the Linux Foundation 's recently enacted Code of Conduct. The code bans, among other things, "abusive, offensive or degrading language."

Figure 1:

Changes include: "Only Sun can take such nice parts and hug up the programming interface like this" and "This card is hugging hot."

Following the patches, developers on the Linux kernel developers mailing list are complaining about censorship in an argument that is, at times, getting silly.

Surprisingly, the changes involve just 33 lines out of a total 3.3+ million lines of code comments, according to the Phoronix Linux news blog. "Linus Torvalds has also cleaned up his colorful language and refrained from any outbursts on the mailing list since his brief retreat during the 4.19 cycle," Phoronix says.

The Code of Conduct was put in place after Linus Torvalds stepped aside from running Linux development for several weeks to get a grip on his abusive behavior.

Related posts:

— Mitch Wagner Follow me on Twitter Visit my LinkedIn profile Visit me on Tumblr Follow me on Facebook Executive Editor, Light Reading

About the Author(s)

Mitch Wagner

Executive Editor, Light Reading

San Diego-based Mitch Wagner is many things. As well as being "our guy" on the West Coast (of the US, not Scotland, or anywhere else with indifferent meteorological conditions), he's a husband (to his wife), dissatisfied Democrat, American (so he could be President some day), nonobservant Jew, and science fiction fan. Not necessarily in that order.

He's also one half of a special duo, along with Minnie, who is the co-habitor of the West Coast Bureau and Light Reading's primary chewer of sticks, though she is not the only one on the team who regularly munches on bark.

Wagner, whose previous positions include Editor-in-Chief at Internet Evolution and Executive Editor at InformationWeek, will be responsible for tracking and reporting on developments in Silicon Valley and other US West Coast hotspots of communications technology innovation.

Beats: Software-defined networking (SDN), network functions virtualization (NFV), IP networking, and colored foods (such as 'green rice').

Subscribe and receive the latest news from the industry.
Join 62,000+ members. Yes it's completely free.

You May Also Like