Linux Journal ceases publication

>Without the GPL, GNU/Linux would've been pretty much the same. A marginal, hobbyist OS that large corporates randomly plagiarise with no obligation to give anything back.

Which is exactly what the Linux Foundation's member corporations are doing to the people who build Linux on a daily basis. How many core pieces of the ecosystem can you name that even receive recognition for their efforts, let alone fair recompense?

It's no wonder we ended up with loose cannons like Patrick McHardy.

I know my experience far more often is with people that seem to fall into this "aren't making serious attempts" category. It feels like this article is talking specifically to that sort of person, rather than anybody with genuine neurological differences, by saying "This also means continuing to work on empathy and social skills." It feels like a direct response to something I hear a lot that these empathy and social skills don't matter and only the code matters. I used to be one of those sorts, so it stings to hear, but it's completely right.

I'm sad that he offended people that can't do this, because it feels like a very well-stated call to action for those of us that just don't want to and otherwise have nothing other than our preference for intentionally being jerks standing in the way.

What is defined as _polite_ also differs in cultures. In Northern-European cultures, think of Norway, Finland, and alike, the American style smalltalk is literally seen as fake talk, lying straight to Your face and getting caught with it right there on the spot, except when some foreigner does it, because thanks to business relations and the Internet the northerners know that the Brits and the Americans and alike do not mean any ill by doing it, id est it's just a form of politeness from the Brits, Americans, etc. part. But with locals the assumption is that they know the local culture and the things that are appreciated are: LACK OF SMALLTALK and talk that is straight to the point and INFORMATIVELY DIRECT.

By informatively direct I mean that an expression that person X is an "asshole"/bastard/etc. is seen simply as an insulting way of saying that the X is not liked, but that kind of expression is NOT considered _informative_, despite it being direct. Informatively correct means telling someone directly, without calling that person an "asshole" or anything else similar, how he could stop doing harm or be more helpful. For example, one may describe, how the ACTIONS of X are creating harm and are in conflict with one's or someone else's interests or if X is inadvertently carrying out the harmful action, then a thorough explanation, how the X's action happens to be harmful.

One difference in what is considered polite in Estonian business etiquette and the typical more-Western business etiquette is that in Estonia THE POLITE WAY to conduct business is to NOT WASTE OTHER PEOPLE's TIME, id est "time is money", so a proper business meeting starts punctually, at most 5-to-10 minutes late, but a correct way is to be on site roughly 2 minutes BEFORE the meeting, but NOT EARLIER, id est if one reaches the office building, where the meeting is to take place, 10min. before the start of the meeting, then one literally AVOIDS BOTHERING THE HOST before the given time and waits outside of the building roughly 8min. and then enters it to be on site about 2min. before the scheduled start of the meeting. In stead of WASTING OTHER PEOPLE'S TIME ON SMALLTALK, remember, "time is money", the _POLITE_ way is to be PREPARED and GET STRAIGHT TO THE MATTER THAT THE MEETING WAS SCHEDULED FOR. As the meeting style is straight-to-the-point-and-without-empty-talk, the meeting usually takes place at a conference room, where the host usually serves coffee, if the guests want it. Coffee is a standard thing that can be expected at any proper Estonian office. Do not expect any meals there, it's just coffee, may be a few candies, may be a biscuit, after all, it's straight-to-the-point business talk, where both parties are expected to be prepared beforehand. It's OK to take time for thinking, but for longer thinking the goal is not to waste other party's time while working on one's own thoughts, so at some point it's smarter to just end the meeting with a conclusion that one needs to work/think about the issues and then schedule a new meeting or let the thinking results known over e-mail. E-mail is preferred to talking on the phone, because with e-mail the recipient can schedule his thoughts, but a phone-call would interrupt the answering party's activities and therefore disturb them.

So, now imagine, how the British or Americans see that kind of a "human-communication-rotocol". What is considered polite by Estonians is literally impolite in the British/American culture. I'm not talking about tech-oriented people specific business etiquette here. I'm talking about the general Estonian business etiquette. Of course, yes, we adopt, we know that the Brits and the Americans and other people from the Old West are different, so we try to adopt ourselves, but to get things done, one just needs some practicality and wasting that much time on commuting or smalltalk or other time-wasters is just not possible in Estonia. The same thing with greeting: in Estonia colleagues say "hi" to each other only once per work day and the Estonian formal greeting of a handshake in stead of kissing or hugging is VERY PRACTICAL during flu outbreaks: it avoids transmission of disease. Actually Russians, including Estonian-Russians (50% of the citizens of the capital of Extonia, Tallinn, speak Russian natively, about 30% of Estonians are actually Estonian-Russians) use handshakes during informal greetings between friends, for example, students in the morning at some university corridor. Native Estonians do not have any physical contact, not even a handshake, when giving a familiar greeting to colleagues, family, friends. Just a simple "Tere!"(translates as "Hello!") from across the room, may be 3 meters away from the other person, and that's it, greeting-protocol done, everyone is happy and it is not considered sloppy or bad tone or something that "uneducated people do", it's the polite familiar way to greet people. And, as I said, in northern regions, where infectious flues are common, specially in the late autumn or early spring, it is also a very PRACTICAL form of greeting.

Interestingly the Estonian saying, "Üheksa korda mõõda, üks kord lõika."(translation: "Measure 9 times before cutting.") is is totally at odds with the American saying, "A quick decision is better than no decision", or even the German joke: "By the time the smart people have completed thinking, the stupid ones have taken over the castle." In my opinion, and I'm a native Estonian, Estonians do not spend enough time on thinking, but it is a fact that Russians tend to consider Estonians to be slow, to the point of even having anecdotes about it (You may look them up Yourself from the WWW), but the thinking is carried out without wasting other people's time. Forests are important in Estonian folklore in many ways and one of the ways is that old Estonians used walks in the forest or other activities, may be picking berries, for calm, thorough, thinking.

Well, all in all, there are different ways to be _polite_ and not all Old West customs are practical to adopt. I as an Estonian think that getting things done quickly without wasting time on smalltalk is a Good Thing and being direct does not have to involve derogatory words or expressions that do not properly inform the accused of the observations about its actions. I also think that often times the culture difference between people with different occupations can be greater than the culture difference between people, who have different nationalities, but who share an occupation, specially in the modern Global World, where scientific works, software, books are distributed globally.

Thank You for reading my comment :-)