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by Alupis 4232 days ago
I'm pretty certain that when someone actually tries to hire an assassin to murder the creator of a free software project simply because they disagree with said software project, things have gone way, way too far.

People who support systemd are not launching personal attacks, calling for physical harm against non-systemd supporters. This is a unidirectional attack. And it needs to stop.
3 comments
cthalupa 4232 days ago
>when someone actually tries to hire an assassin to murder the creator of a free software projec

Has this ever been substantiated? From my understanding, the "death threats" were more along the lines of people saying awful things like "I hope Lennart gets run over", not "I am hiring someone to shoot you". Lennart made a comment about a bitcoin collection, but provided no actual proof. Personally, I'm skeptical - I've seen quite a bit of vitriol about systemd, but never anyone campaigning for bitcoins to hire a hitman. It seems like a rather easy way to bring a lot of discredit to your detractors.

Even the former is obviously not acceptable, but no one is being done any favors if we suddenly conflate an offhand mean spirited comment with actual death threats or attempts on someone's life.

Edit: Someone linked the actual conversation - http://logs.nslu2-linux.org/livelogs/maemo/maemo.20130215.tx...

It's obviously a joke and not an actual attempt to hire a hitman. They shortly after proceed to talk about how Red Hat has replacement clones if anything were to happen, anyway.

Is it a shitty joke? yes. Is it mean spirited? Yes. Is it the same thing as actually trying to have someone kill the man? No.

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Joeboy 4232 days ago
I will offer solidarity and hopefully absorb some of your downvotes.

Yes, it is clearly a joke.

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icebraining 4232 days ago
Making it a "systemd critics" issue will just alienate sane people from the debate. Disliking systemd is not a club, requiring approval for membership. Even if this is a one-sided issue, that doesn't mean it's an issue of the whole side.
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tedunangst 4232 days ago
> when someone actually tries to hire an assassin

What???

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desdiv 4232 days ago
From the horse's mouth:

Recently, people started collecting Bitcoins to hire a hitman for me (this really happened!).

https://plus.google.com/+LennartPoetteringTheOneAndOnly/post...

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A_COMPUTER 4232 days ago
His name was on a fallacious bitcoin "assassination market" only accessible over Tor, basically just a website you could submit names to, with an associated bitcoin address. An obvious scam to glean free bitcoin. The hit man claim is complete horse shit.
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tedunangst 4232 days ago
Oh! I assumed "tried" implied "tried and failed", but it seems the effort is ongoing? I guess the shutdown of Silk Road 2.0 will delay things for a while.
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felixgallo 4232 days ago
What was it that Gandhi said? First you sneer at people, then you lie to people, then when caught out you make up stories to try to get sympathy? Wasn't that it?
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nandhp 4232 days ago
https://plus.google.com/+LennartPoetteringTheOneAndOnly/post...

http://logs.nslu2-linux.org/livelogs/maemo/maemo.20130215.tx... (Ctrl-F hitman)

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ctz 4232 days ago
Is an IRC chatlog the best evidence we have that "this really happened"?
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