
FreeBSD Renames “Master Boot Record” to “Main Boot Record” - caughtinsight
https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/svn-src-head/2020-June/137316.html
======
simias
Seems like a straightforward change, in my experience everybody uses the
initials "MBR" anyway. It shouldn't really introduce a lot of confusion.

I wish we could discuss these changes rationally on this website, but I
predict that this thread is going to turn into an embarrassing flamewar in
about 3 minutes.

------
KryDos
So as far as I understand Hans (the author) is FreeBSD maintainer and he made
the change in the source code. Community isn't happy about it (based on the
email thread).

Is there any person who can actually revert the change ignoring Hans? How does
it work in FreeBSD?

I'm quite unhappy with such changes. There are terms I used to and I never
thought about those terms in any way bad meaning. Are people who rename Master
to Main latent racist? Why, by reading "Master", they think about slavery?

It would be much better if we vote for such changes. Maybe give voice only to
people who potentially may be offended by such words. Hans doesn't look as a
person who can be offended by word Master though...

Very sad tendency is happening.

------
haunter
Some replies later:

>Please revert. Another part if the guidance was that industry standard terms
should be used until the industry renames them. This makes FreeBSD unique for
no good reason.

Good point!

[https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/porters-
ha...](https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/porters-
handbook/dads-use-posix-standards.html)

------
bm3719
I remember reading a few amusing stories about a certain category of the
public offended by the FreeBSD logo, as far back as the late 90s at least.
Here's one of them: [https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-
chat/2011-Novemb...](https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-
chat/2011-November/006652.html)

Now we're the puritans, demanding not to be offended.

------
torstenvl
This is absolute craziness, especially when far more offensive terms are used
throughout (the devil logo, demons, gimp, git, execute, terminal, disabled).

"The gimp executable" is far far more off-sounding then "master boot record."

~~~
JoshTriplett
[https://glimpse-editor.org/](https://glimpse-editor.org/)

~~~
haunter
On the other hand it's also a good example why Linux will be never a thing on
desktop. So many resources divided between developers instead of working
together and focusing on one thing. But that's also the case with the millions
of different desktop environments and package managers and such etc. Sometimes
less is more

------
RandomBacon
Is this in response to BLM? I also heard a couple of years ago people were
trying to rename slave harddrives to something else too (maybe "secondary"?).

~~~
selykg
Very likely in response to awareness of systemic racism in our culture.

Frankly, if it makes this field and career path more welcoming to people I am
absolutely fine with it.

~~~
cczizou
Agreed.

~~~
selykg
Given the downvotes I’m getting I think this industry is a lot more racist
than I thought.

~~~
salawat
No, it has nothing to do with race. It has to do with introducing politics,
racism, and your personal social commentary into a field or topic area in
which that has no relevance, and in which everyone is getting along just fine.

It's looking at hard drives and calling everyone who has used terminology you
think might offend someone racist through passive voice.

Paint with broad strokes, and you should not be surprised to get blowback.
Walk in and start calling everyone around you closet racists without any real
justification other than word choice, and to be frank, you should be thankful
you don't get a worse response than you do.

------
coronadisaster
How many boot records are there?

~~~
geofft
One for each partition, plus one more at the beginning of the disk:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volume_boot_record](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volume_boot_record)

For instance, if you have a disk with Windows, FreeBSD, and Linux partitions,
each partition has its own boot sector that loads its own boot loader, and the
MBR loads one of those. (Generally it's a tiny piece of code that could come
from any of the OSes that looks at which partition is marked bootable, loads
the boot sector for that partition, and execs it.)

------
rvz
How far do you want to take this? Device Drivers? Documentation? Books?
Computer Science Literature?, Research Papers?

I am still waiting for someone to tell Mr Linus Torvalds or Mr Greg Kroah-
Hartman to make the logical case to rename all 'offensive' words and
terminology in the Linux Kernel. The same also goes for OpenBSD, if anyone
else has the courage to do so in their mailing lists.

Even after we create breaking changes to software using those terms, those
that are 'offended' might as well not bother reading old computer science
books or research papers and force the authors to release another edition.

~~~
blastonico
What about the "mastering" (audio), master degree programs, martial arts
masters, JEDI masters. Jedi Main Yoda?

------
based2
[https://thenewstack.io/words-matter-finally-tech-looks-at-
re...](https://thenewstack.io/words-matter-finally-tech-looks-at-removing-
exclusionary-language/)

~~~
loopz
Stopped at "Scrum Master". The idea of SM being expert and not a regular team
member or even rotating, is just misguided.

------
rhn_mk1
This is going to be fun for students all over the world trying to use older
materials with newer software. I can imagine the confusion.

------
Erlangen
Haven't change handbook yet.
[https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/arch-
handb...](https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/arch-
handbook/index.html)

------
alanfranz
I am about to finish my OMSCS studies. I suppose I should apologize for being
a Master of Science.

------
bsdimp
This will be reverted.

~~~
KryDos
It is reverted now. Thanks to everyone who participated in the revert.

------
smitty1e
The two initial letters are the same.

We cannot attain Justice while still using the same language, and indeed,
alphabet.

But as long as this is a technical forum, have we reconsidered numbers?
Haven't 0 and 1 and the rest of mathematical thinking been dominated by men?

------
maallooc
As a christian with a knee injury, I'm deeply offended by their devil logo and
gimp program name. As this seems to be a clear violation of their code of
conduct, I will officially raise this issue to their code of conduct
committee. Let's see how they respond.

~~~
geofft
Several years ago they moved from a cartoony demon logo to a more abstract
red-sphere-with-two-cones logo precisely to avoid the overtones of the old
image. As a fellow Christian, I figured I'd give you the heads up so that
you're not lying.

I do agree with you about the name "gimp" and I hope you raise it - it should
also be changed.

~~~
maallooc
It does not change the fact that freebsd is under systemic daemon-ism. It's
time for a change.

