2021.

Thread at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29170375

> Initially this seems like a case of a communication breakdown alongside a technical disagreement. However, the real unacceptable behavior comes with System76’s response to Richard’s post. They start by sharing part of the correspondence between both parties. I believe the communication breakdown occurs in this section, where Richard explains why their current methods will not work for the LVFS. Then they go further and imply that the LVFS is handing away private data:

> [...]

> Later on the LVFS team put in work to support the use case of System76 so that vendors could use the LVFS without any sort of reporting. Soon after System76 began using the LVFS and fwupd without any fanfare or retraction of their prior statements.

So... System76 correctly point out that LVFS defaults to pulling from a central service in a way that sends more information than is necessary to that service, and later LVFS supports not sending that data, and then System76 starts using it. There's nothing for them to retract; they made a correct claim, it got fixed, and then they moved forward.

Also as a fairly minor point:

> Their existing misinformation has already caused ripples within the community, getting many people stirred up and making claims like GTK4 being only for GNOME, or GNOME wanting to be the “only” desktop on Linux because of the approach to themes we have.

I assure you, it's not just the theme debacle that makes people treat GNOME as wanting to be the only desktop. My personal favorite will probably always be https://trac.transmissionbt.com/ticket/3685#no1 but it's not like it's an isolated incident.

The moment I read something in which the author is accusing someone of "spreading misinformation," I'm naturally inclined to take the accuser less seriously. Reckless use of that term is the real pattern of behavior.

the politics is becoming as confusing as Gnome itself