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submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by lemmylem@lemm.ee to c/linux@lemmy.ml

Hello,

There was a recent port that was made to Libreboot for the Dell Optiplex 9020 MT, and I was not properly credited for the work that I did. I made a pull request on Codeberg with my patch (github basically) and labeled it as 'WIP'. Leah and I were working on this together during that time, and I was told to wait a week, so I did. Time passes and guess what? They closed off my patch and added it themselves a week later with no credit given to me.

I made the .ROM files for the 9020 MT motherboard, I tested them, and they didn't work until Leah came in and resized the IFD and GBE regions. That was all that they did. Everything else, I did on my own, I added the entries in /vendor/sources for MRC/ME, and added it to lbmk. Leah is now refusing to accept my patch that's fixed.

I'm not trying to steal all the glory from them, they did help, I just want partial credit for utilizing the port from coreboot gerit. This port was originally made in Coreboot by Mate Kukri, so work mostly goes to them, but as for adding support for Libreboot, my name is completely left out. I just feel wronged because now they're saying that I don't deserve to have my name on this because I was too slow, when the reality is I was literally instructed to wait for them during that time period. I believe I was manipulated into waiting so that Leah could get the board themselves and add it without ever including my name. They also told me to wait a week on two seperate occasions, so in total I waited two weeks.

I spent a week working on this, and I let them know how significant this was to me, only to have my work shitted on and not properly credited. I'm now banned from IRC and Libreboot for talking about this on Mastadon. Leah claims that I was bullying/harassing them, but I was just exerting frustration, and if it was bullying, I apologize then.

Leah told me on Mastadon to 'respect their authority' and 'yield to their authority' and not to make a peep about this. I'm just ranting about this now because I feel like my work was just stolen. This is the most powerful desktop supported by Libreboot and now I'm left in the back pages where no one can see my name, which says 'Provided testing hardware for the 9020 MT' when I did much more than just testing. I was the one who added support for this desktop. I've been a fan of the Libreboot project for 4 years, this just makes me really sad to see it end like this.

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[-] halm@leminal.space 7 points 8 months ago

I do feel sorry for you but not for the reasons you seem so obsessed about. I've been unemployed and trying to make opportunities for myself that didn't come through. I've felt like I burned my one and only chance, several times. It's rough pulling yourself up by the small hairs and trying again, but trust me. This isn't the way.

This was intentional from Leah and it’s pretty obvious.

It's obvious to you in your current situation, I'm sure, but take a breath and distance yourself just a moment. You're clearly hurt but this is the makings of a paranoid delusion. Is the lead of an open source project intentionally persecuting and exploiting random volunteers, or just you specifically? Is that lead of an open source project with us in the room now?

Look, counterpoint: It's fairly clear to me that you put a lot of expectation and hope on this opportunity to ship a working patch, and you saw the collaboration with Rowe as a sort of mentoring relationship where they'd coach your patch through to a working state. And after that you'd have that on your CV and all the doors to employment would open.

However, your work was (not stolen but) rejected — and you have been given clear explanations why the project lead chose not to use your work, not least that it bricked the device it was made for.

You need to acknowledge two things, both of them starting with "this isn't all about you": 1. Rowe had a different understanding of your collaboration, where they as a project lead were more concerned with shipping a working patch, any working patch, than with tutoring your process; and 2. The fault is with you for expecting Rowe to delay shipping and not use a fix they came up with themself in favour of your work. You handed in a patch that didn't work and Rowe looked for other solutions as any good project manager should. End of.

You've seen an opportunity fall away and, although that is always a blow to someone starting a career, you need to move on. At this point you're just tilting at windmills and making up reasons that somebody else is to blame. Nobody stole your work (not in a way that you seem willing to prove), you were given credit to the extent that your work was useful to the project.

Now do what you would have done if your work had been accepted: put the credit on your resume, keep looking for work and — I hope — more voluntary software work.

this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2024
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Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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