Although there are things I like about the Plan 9 family of operating systems, I cannot in good conscience promote 9Front.
Among the first commits in the git history was "Added /lib/meinkampf", followed, three months later (with a lot of regular development in the meantime), by "replaced /lib/meinkampf with something more sensible". You'd think this means they removed the nazi propaganda, but no, they replaced it with an english translation.
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the manual page for ns(1), a tool that lists the namespace of a process, to this day states: "46:The name of this tool is reminiscent of National Socialism and NeXTSTEP, it's hard to decide which one is worse", which is at best an incredibly trite attempt at humor.
and it isn't all in the past. the poster for the current release ("clause 15 common elements of maus and star type") is a collage (credited to sl) of a drawing by prahou (whom i respect as an artist), and a photo
the photo isn't credited. it shows men with shaved heads in cheap, uniform clothing, sitting in shelves. the photo was taken at the concentration prision in El Salvador (CECOT), to which the US has been deporting "gang members".
the "back" side is even worse: just straight up nazi shit, namely the table of "Markierungen der Häftlinge", signs that prisoners in the Nazi concentration camps were forced to wear.
@jn at worst you get actual nazis, at best you get fans of an incredibly annoying person (rob "i don't use syntax highlighting because colors are for children" pike), plan9 just ain't worth it
@jn That shouldn’t be of any concern. I believe 9front is free software, meaning that the developers have no power over you.
Within the /lib folder, 9front contains plain text copies of The Manifesto of the Communist Party, the Constitution of the United States, and many other highly important documents that have immense historical importance and so deserve a place in the official documentation of the operating system.
https://wiki.installgentoo.com/wiki/9front
Mein Kampf is a disgusting text but it is historically relevant. Still it was replaced and also the other stuff you mentioned has also largely been changed in later versions.
When Plan 9 was developed at Bell Labs, it wasn’t like this, this nazi shit (that no amount of “nazi punks fuck off” can paint over) is a 9front addition.
A lot of former Bell labs people are working on 9Front, you do understand that community efforts have different social norms than corporate ones?
You really seem like these peculiar people that struggle to build something great but excel at dragging others down. If you seriously think that neo national socialists are working on 9Front you are completely out of your fucking mind and consequently wrong on anything you ever said ever in the past, present or future
@p get a load of this
@p @jn @dagda Um actually Hitler was a good Midwestern American boy who just wanted to be left alone, restore the civil liberties of white people, and ensure everyone had their own sovereign nation they could have a right of return to and be happy in. Even the Slavs. Especially the Slavs. Nothing nefarious going on there. In fact, Mein Kampf is basically just reinforcing the Bible. Idk German but I'm pretty sure Lebensraum means "world peace, especially with Slavs"
@novenary to add to this, the back cover is an example of art intending to make you uncomfortable. (my interpretation:) the back cover is blatant enough to A. drive away corpo types and B. make you stop and think about what's going on. it's to make you go look around for context, to notice the photo behind the drawing in the front cover, to go look for more context in the 9front site if you haven't before. @jn does directly juxtapose analyses in https://boopsnoot.de/@jn/114664245655054406, but they don't draw a connection that where the US is going with deportations to nasty prisons is fucking bad. the political situation should make you deeply uncomfortable too. if you want friendlier art with your hobbyist operating system release from a weird community, the drawing in the front cover is still there. they also name-drop Maus in the release title and reference it again in the back cover.
the 9front folks want you to think.
as a bonus, anyone who goes through this will have a better set of expectations for interacting with the community if they decide to do so. even in non-political matters, 9front's public communications are often meant to not go down smooth. a bit of brutalism, a bit of adverserial design, and some unabashed weirdness.
also, if they are a bunch of fascists currently, they're sure leaving a lot of room to have their messaging read as distinctly anti-fascist.
for a final note around Why did 9front stop making fun of Nazis?, it reminds me of ex-channers who have noticed The Problem with chan culture and taken reasonable steps since then but also haven't buried their past. i personally don't expect to ever hang out in the 9front community, but the folks seem chill.
@novenary actually looking at the front cover drawing more that could also be a 9front-y interpretation of the CECOT photos so i may have also gotten skill-issued here, with calling the drawing "friendlier" still missing things. great job me.
This blew up a bit. I got many replies, ranging from harassment and gore to pretty thoughtful ones.
So, what's my problem? I think jokes and art based on fascist materials make space for those who genuinely enjoy these materials.
I wish the release collage came with a paragraph stating what is obvious to many but not all: It's a fucking disgrace to deport people and rip them out of their lives, and if we don't watch out we'll be reliving the 1940s faster than we're prepared for.