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master vs main (sh.itjust.works)
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[-] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 15 points 3 days ago

People think it's "master" as in "master/slave", but forked branches are not "slaves".

I think they're just uncomfortable with the word "master", and that seems completely reasonable to me, especially when they're people from a group which has been subjected to slavery.

[-] 1rre@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 3 days ago

I don't recall any actual person saying they had an issue with it before corporations started changing it though, I always thought it was a precautionary measure more than likely thought up by a committee looking for exactly this sort of thing...

That said, it may be different in the US given the history of overall more systemic discrimination, and divisiveness over what's acceptable, rather than the fairly widely accepted casual slur-slinging and stereotyping you get in Europe.

[-] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 days ago

I don’t recall any actual person saying they had an issue with it before corporations started changing it though

I have heard people complain about it.

I always thought it was a precautionary measure more than likely thought up by a committee looking for exactly this sort of thing…

What makes you think that they have a committee like that?

[-] 1rre@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I don't think they have one full time, but I think given the context of the changes it's very plausible that companies put together committees formed of minorities or marketing or anyone with an opinion to workshop rebranding and renaming options to make the company appear progressive, and I think even if it wasn't the case, the perception of that sort of thing happening is more responsible than people think for the rise of Trump, AfD, Reform, FN etc. as the average person doesn't want posturing and is pushed towards the opposite direction by it, with the shift amplified by the fact that people aren't happy with the status quo at the moment, so if the status quo are acting like the left then the people will see the right as the opposite of that, regardless of who's in government.

That's not to say the opinions of the people who you know have complained about it aren't valid, it's just that I'd much rather have some dated vocabulary, slurs occasionally being used casually and questionable branding than raids on immigrants and the rights of minorities being eroded after one extreme pushes moderates to the other extreme.

[-] whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Yeah I don't think anyone was called a remaster, different words even if they share the same root

Also master/slave was used in tech for awhile not just for forked branches, a couple examples are https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E88353_01/html/E37855/scsi-slave-9f.html in SCSI interfaces and replication systems like those used with databases https://jira.mariadb.org/plugins/servlet/mobile#issue/MDEV-18777

[-] LwL@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

The original audio after mastering is also still called a master, but I haven't seen anyone complain about that. And that (as well as the same meaning for other media) is the word that the branch name master came from, so etymology can't really be an argument there (though I also think etymology is terrible reasoning for renaming something in general).

this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2025
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