David Gerarddavidgerard@circumstances.run
Oct 14, 2026, 9:11 AMHow much slop is in Linux now? Ehh we decided not to tell you
https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20261009083137.3-1-sashal@kernel.org/
Replies
gaytabasedysfun@treehouse.systemsOct 14, 2026, 9:13 AM@davidgerard it's just a tool, bro, you don't need to know what tool i used, bro.
Oct 14, 2026, 9:19 AM@davidgerard That will make it tricky once all LLM assisted content is ruled as copyright infringement and needs to be stripped out.
Oct 14, 2026, 11:36 AM@kbm0 @davidgerard i wonder if that's part of the reason for this change
Your weary 'net denizencstanhope@social.coopOct 14, 2026, 11:51 AM@tmw @kbm0 @davidgerard Yeah, I don't know for sure, but considering Linux is basically a corporate project, this change will also provide welcome ambiguity for lawyers that either want to enforce copyright claim on the kernel or deny copyright infringement. The ambiguity will also be useful for lobbyists when arguing for favorable changes to laws, "It's already deeply embedded, and there's no way to tell what was written by what!"
mathewmathew@universeodon.comOct 14, 2026, 2:48 PM@tmw @kbm0 @davidgerard Bingo. We don't even need to wait for that possibility. The US Copyright Office guidance is that you can't get copyright protection for a work that's a mixture of human-created and AI-created material, unless you reveal which parts are AI generated. By making it impossible to do that, the kernel becomes impossible to get US copyright protection on. Which means the GPL can be ignored, and corporations can close off the kernel as they wish.
ozengozeng@aus.socialOct 14, 2026, 12:14 PM@kbm0 @davidgerard @zzt resetting the pointer to 2025 is fine by me. I don’t just mean the Linux kernel. I mean everything.
Actually, if we have to go through all this shit again, maybe not..
KrazovKrazov@mstdn.socialOct 14, 2026, 9:20 AM@davidgerard "We didn't need the thermometer anyway."
Oct 14, 2026, 9:22 AM@davidgerard@circumstances.run I don't understand. If LLM-code is fine, why go out of your way to obfuscate what is or isn't LLM-generated code? All this does is erode trust.
FoolishOwlfoolishowl@social.coopOct 14, 2026, 2:51 PM@axel @davidgerard 'Airlie said that probably 90% of contributors are using LLMs now. Many of them, he said, fear being caught up in an anti-LLM witch hunt. He suggested adding a requirement that models read all of the kernel's documentation into an AGENTS.md file. Torvalds thought many submitters were simply ashamed to admit that they were using those tools. Gleixner suggested, not entirely seriously, adding a Not-assisted-by tag instead; Arnd Bergmann said he would find that a useful indicator of developers he should put time into helping.'
- FoolishOwlfoolishowl@social.coopOct 14, 2026, 2:59 PM
@axel @davidgerard Clearly they're not afraid enough.
Also the witches are probably on our side.
Spitfirespitfire@mastodon.deOct 14, 2026, 9:36 AMI am really baffled by the speed of how fast this project goes down the shitter 😥
/e:
yet there's still a glimmer of hope that torvalds is going to get over his "it's just a tool" phase.I heard him already complaining about the volume of bogus pull requests etc.
McCovicanMcCovican@infosec.exchangeOct 14, 2026, 9:49 AMI'm afraid that glimmer is looking more and more like a mirage...
https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/CAHk-=whTs09_ozN+e09GU68N1wPP56MUzDjrg9rnKxQUa0A_4Q@mail.gmail.com/
His ignorance is, at this point, wholly wilful.
- Spitfirespitfire@mastodon.deOct 14, 2026, 9:54 AM
oh damn - reading that mail made me literally facepalm. instantly going ad-hominem and argueing like a 5th grader. 🙄
Oct 14, 2026, 9:57 AM@spitfire @McCovican What we need is a fork.
New Linux and Slop Linux need to be developed separately.
Lauralandelare@mastodon.gamedev.placeOct 14, 2026, 10:30 AM@yora @spitfire @McCovican There are other, under-resourced operating systems that are more worthy of the attention than this insecure C fossil.
- Oct 14, 2026, 10:31 AM
@landelare @spitfire @McCovican Sure. If we make all the Linux software run on it I'd be happy to use it.
Oct 14, 2026, 11:06 AM@yora @landelare @spitfire @McCovican
Redox OS @redox_os@icosahedron.websit (strong anti AI policy) already runs a ton, including a graphical desktop!
Moriel 🏳️⚧️moriel@chaosfem.twOct 14, 2026, 10:39 AMi've been wondering when this would get mentioned. i wish i had the free time to work on such a project, but although i learned C in the early 90's i've never done any kernel work so even the thought of using what little free time i have sounds completely daunting.
Oct 15, 2026, 2:44 AM@spitfire @McCovican So, he's back to his 90's self.
Well ain't that just ducky.
Mo Ⓐ☭🇵🇸MoBlack@mastodon.onlineOct 14, 2026, 11:41 AM@McCovican @spitfire @davidgerard unfortunately, the trend more and more agentic AI contributions to the kernel and less and less humans vetted to make those AI contributions. Linux will stop being a community project, and it will be more like a few key maintainers and companies managing AI agents to mutate the code, "open source" only in the sense that, I guess, you can look at the code with your eyeballs if you want
zedaardvzedaardv@mastodon.worldOct 14, 2026, 11:52 AM@McCovican @spitfire @davidgerard
Wait is he arguing that deterministic and non-deterministic are the same thing?
Everyday FreethoughtEFreethought@universeodon.comOct 14, 2026, 1:08 PM@zedaardv @McCovican @spitfire @davidgerard
"And quite honestly, in my experience, the people I respect and call
intelligent are not the ones that shy away from using new and
interesting tools."Being new does not make something interesting or useful.
Also: Kind of hard to "shy away" from something that is being forced on you.
- Lauralandelare@mastodon.gamedev.placeOct 14, 2026, 10:40 AM
@spitfire @davidgerard It's not often that I'm rooting for the AI bros, but if they could submit even more bogus PRs, that would be very nice of them in this particular instance
- Spitfirespitfire@mastodon.deOct 14, 2026, 10:41 AM
@landelare the tried and tested "flood the zone with shit" gambit, yes? 😉
- Lauralandelare@mastodon.gamedev.placeOct 14, 2026, 10:50 AM
@spitfire I'm not very well-versed in these techniques, but I'll happily watch the wrestling match
- Spitfirespitfire@mastodon.deOct 14, 2026, 10:53 AM
@landelare just for the record - me neither 😄
/e don't mind if I save that picture you posted. it's lovely :heart:
- Lauralandelare@mastodon.gamedev.placeOct 14, 2026, 11:03 AM
@spitfire I have stolen—I mean, obtained it to train my own AI, so that it's legal—it myself, go ahead
CynAq🤘CynAq@beige.partyOct 14, 2026, 11:59 AM@spitfire @davidgerard I’m afraid this will not end in Torvalds getting over whatever this is but us realizing he’s a full blown neonazi or something.
dimenziodimenzio@social.linux.pizzaOct 14, 2026, 12:55 PM@CynAq @spitfire @davidgerard I also don't think he gets over it. He just seems so ultra utility-focused and small scoped. Who cares it's drowning the reviewers, or leading to widespread problems mental wise. To him it feels faster right now, and probably does in the future when he vibe codes some other random bullshit. Review burden, understanding of systems and code? Who needs it, go pay Anthropic to save them one more day until they burn, bitches.
- Spitfirespitfire@mastodon.deOct 14, 2026, 12:58 PM
@dimenzio @CynAq @davidgerard after catching up on all his recent posts I am going to retract my "glimmer of hope" statement. The man is deteriorating fast.
Tio KilokuKiloku@burnthis.townOct 14, 2026, 1:41 PM@CynAq @spitfire @davidgerard He did almost complain about "Social Justice Warriors" a while ago, which is an old nazi 4channer phrase with the same meaning that the right uses "woke" today.
He just dropped the "justice" part to not make it too obvious.
SeiðrIlluminatus@mstdn.socialOct 14, 2026, 1:45 PM@Kiloku @CynAq @spitfire @davidgerard Fucking arsehole. He should go into the woods and kick a bear in the balls to see what happens.
Urzlgooba42@mastodon.socialOct 14, 2026, 1:47 PM@Kiloku @CynAq @spitfire @davidgerard Yeah, when he dropped the part about it never being a social justice project and would never *be* motivated by social justice, that was the end of my enthusiasm.
If social justice isn't a valid motivation in his mind, he can't be trusted.
punIssuerpunissuer@universeodon.comOct 14, 2026, 4:51 PM@gooba42 @Kiloku @CynAq @spitfire @davidgerard SJW-Linux fork when?
GhostOnTheHalfShellGhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.aiOct 15, 2026, 2:10 PM@gooba42 @Kiloku @CynAq @spitfire @davidgerard
Phrases like that is a sure fire sign of a nerd reich adjacency. This is what happens when people go into corners of the Internet and breathe the fumes for too long. The idea that the board of directors has nerd reich Adjacent people in it is also worth considering.
Don’t be surprised if they all go sovereign individual cognitive elite on us they kinda already are
Oct 14, 2026, 2:02 PM@Kiloku @CynAq @spitfire @davidgerard old guy sold out to big tech more news at 10
- Urzlgooba42@mastodon.socialOct 14, 2026, 1:48 PM
@CynAq @spitfire @davidgerard And he's going to blame us. Like clockwork, when this kind of bullshit is happening, they retreat into "I wasn't a Nazi but the people saying anti-Nazi stuff drove me to being a Nazi!"
Oct 14, 2026, 1:25 PM@spitfire @davidgerard the problem is that he likes using it, so it must be good when he does it. all the other stuff he doesn’t like is because other people use it badly. therefore it must be just a tool, with no other qualifiers
as my mom used to tell me, “welp, there’s no arguing with that logic”
- Lauralandelare@mastodon.gamedev.placeOct 14, 2026, 10:29 AM
@davidgerard Problem solved ✨️
slotosslotos@toot.communityOct 14, 2026, 10:30 AM@davidgerard And _the guy_ has lost his marbles.
https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/CAHk-=whTs09_ozN+e09GU68N1wPP56MUzDjrg9rnKxQUa0A_4Q@mail.gmail.com/
RycochetRycochet@furs.socialOct 14, 2026, 11:11 AM@davidgerard And as things get less and less stable, they'll deny it being down to the slop code. Comments sections will be packed with slopbros going 'Nuh huh, you have no way to know it was down to AI, you're just guessing! Correlation is not causation! Checkmate, luddites!'
Oct 14, 2026, 11:32 AM@davidgerard@circumstances.run Sorry, I can't read it, I have thrown all of my computers into the sea and never wish to touch one again.
- David Gerarddavidgerard@circumstances.runOct 14, 2026, 11:42 AM
@paul a wise choice
good thing masto works on an abacus now
Moses Izumi (he/him)moses_izumi@fe.disroot.orgOct 14, 2026, 11:45 AM@davidgerard @paul
"good thing masto works on an abacus now"
i thought that was supposed to be SNAC and GoToSocial's big feature.
Oct 14, 2026, 11:58 AM@davidgerard wow that’s pathetic
OpmodoroOpmodoro@mastodon.unoOct 14, 2026, 12:18 PM@davidgerard if not for explicites audit reason, there is no need to have it. Who commit is the owner and responsible.
- David Gerarddavidgerard@circumstances.runOct 14, 2026, 12:46 PM
@Opmodoro 0 follower spam sockpuppet
kramakerkramaker@vivaldi.netOct 14, 2026, 12:56 PM@davidgerard Final straw for me. I am, as Emperor Penguin suggested, "forking off"...to #NetBSD
Alexeadanila@mastodon.socialOct 14, 2026, 1:07 PM@davidgerard What I don’t understand is why this seems to be the only place the kernel is willing to embrace anything modern. I mean, there was a maintainers’ revolt over Rust and development still happens over email with format-patch, but LLMs come in and suddenly it’s all about accepting the future of software development.
- Everyday FreethoughtEFreethought@universeodon.comOct 14, 2026, 1:12 PM
Maybe they have reached the point where they are no longer actually "assisted by" the LLMs, and just taking whatever comes out of it.
A lot of LLM users go through that cycle: They start out careful, then they just take what it gives.
Kind of like that like about being addicted to alcohol or smoking: It starts out as a guest, but becomes the master.
Oct 14, 2026, 2:02 PM@davidgerard a reasonable conclusion seems to be that unless explicitly stated otherwise, assume by default that it was probably assisted by some LLM.
kasperdkasperd@westergaard.socialOct 14, 2026, 2:22 PMOne post links to meeting notes where it was discussed. And those meeting notes are behind a paywall.- dimenziodimenzio@social.linux.pizzaOct 14, 2026, 5:22 PM
@davidgerard Might as well go to TempleOS if we are doing faith based development
Dźwiedziudzwiedziu@mastodon.socialOct 14, 2026, 9:48 PM@davidgerard
I (not a lawyer) will claim that this is against the EU's AI Act, as there all slop-generated text should be marked as slop-generated.
Gerald Squelartgerald@aus.socialOct 14, 2026, 11:04 PM@davidgerard + the irony of the anti-bot page when first accessing this link! 😆
