Serious question - if the word "master" is now bad, even in cases where the term "slave" is absent, shouldn't we be renaming the "Master's" degree? I don't fully understand all the nuance here.
The "master" in "master's degree" indicates that you have mastered a topic, and the terminology comes instead from the master/apprentice relationships. Totally different background.
Edit: I provided it in child comments, but support for my claims is available here: https://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2019-May/...
Citation needed, i think. I assume it's rooted in the idea of a master copy.
On the other hand, consider the fact that in most VCS workflows the alternate branches essentially report to the master branch by periodically merging with it. This is similar to the master/slave terminology in use with disk drive configurations.
Edit: A source for support here: https://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2019-May/...
Yeah, but only because you slaved away on it for years right?
The logic behind the original first use of the name doesn't matter.
The way the word "master" is used in the default branch of git repos, is in the context of master/appearance not master/slave. And the way it is actually used is what matters, not the logic of why one person decided to use it.
Of course not. This line of argumentation is silly.
The use is most similar to the explicit master/slave terminology used in disk drive configurations, where the "slave" drives report to the "master" drive. In VCS, the alternate (non-master) branches do their own work and periodically "report" to the master branch by merging to it.
Yes, by being merged in.
In a replication master/slave, the changes on master get replicated to the slave, but the changes on the slave do not go up to the master, as no changes are allowed on the slave that did not come from the master. In this example the slave has no autonomy.
In the git example, this is reversed, its rare that feature branches get updated to master, only if they go long enough, you can think of it as the apprentice branch operating with autonomy, learning from the master branch, until it becomes the new jedi master, and the old master retires.
To me those seem practically indistinguishable, but I will admit I did not dig into it far enough to determine whether the true etymology is as closely aligned as I have assumed. I wonder whether you happen to know offhand (if not I will try to look into it further).
While we're at that:
Ma,am -> madam -> ma dame -> mea domina (my mistress)