this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2023
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
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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I’m happy that we can now at least forget about inferring the education levels of people.
What I do see though is the usage of the language by native speakers. I pretty much never see a woman addressing a group of women by the "gender-neutral" "guys". I often see males addressing a group of males by "guys". Even this mismatch tells me enough about how neutral this term is among the people I see.
I also see males addressing a mixed group by "guys". When called out, they say "oh, but I didn’t mean it like that, many other people do that, the word is now neutral". Which might be even true despite the evidence mentioned above, but it still carries an awful lot of resemblance to other excuses about non-neutral language and behavior. I guess you can see why some people see this as an excuse.
I come from a country which in the last century had probably the best women’s rights in the whole world. And it still struggles with appropriate usage of neutral-gendered and "female"-gendered forms of words, and the excuses are all the same.