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Comment by zacwest | Hacker News Reader

The branch name "master" does not have "golden master" or "master copy" roots: https://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2019-May/...

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That's incorrect. Petr Baudis explained why he picked it:

> "master" as in e.g. "master recording".

https://twitter.com/xpasky/status/1272280760280637441

That's straight from the horse's mouth. The thread you linked to is pure conjecture.

There is also a thread above with source links of him saying "it's not unlikely at all" it was influenced by Bitkeeper and he's "wished many times" he picked main instead.

The answer to the direct question of "What was it [master] meant to convey?" was '"master" as in e.g. "master recording".'

There's no "likeliness" or "influence" in that direct answer. That's pretty straightforward.

The fact that he "wished many times" he picked main instead has no bearing or relevance on why "master" was chosen.

This should be the top comment to foster a conversation around sources we can dig up. The digital roots to word usages should be preserved as understanding is the first step to changing. I can’t casually read the bitkeeper “HOWTO” now without cringing at the word choice - it’s not that it didn’t age well, it’s that I used to lack empathy for its usage.

I think treating this human relationship as a light hearted metaphor disregards the gravity of this painful history. Plenty of alternatives exist, and if one doesn’t in someone’s eyes the brilliant thing is new words and meanings can be invented.

I accept criticism of using master/slave as a consequence of the actions taken by citizens in my country in the past. I’m willing to accept responsibility even when my self and family aren’t at fault.

Edit: A second source of word history to review https://econoben.github.io/2020/10/20/master-slave-terminolo...

And let's remember slavery is still a major part of our lives. Even to this day.

Not making the word trivial is important in creating disgust and outrage, which eventually leads to policy changes to stop slavery happening right now.

That seems like a try-hard. Unless Linus intended "master" to mean "owner", drawing parallels to other VCS is purely speculative. If Linus really intended "master" in git to mean "owner"... where are the "slaves"?

Or are you saying Linus made the default branch "master" because of systemic racism ingrained into him from previous VCS?

The error message in the commit that introduced that change uses the word “insane”. I hope they changed it to “mentally challenged”.

https://github.com/git/git/commit/cad88fdf8d1ebafb5d4d1b92eb...

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