To be fair, I think XLibre's position on DEI doesn't make much sense. They say there is no DEI and immediately follow up saying everyone is allowed to contribute...
But technically yes, there are a ton of cases of big companies misusing DEI. And for example, if someone refers to such annexed land as "Crimea", intentionally, you do technically have a stance that can support whatever the reader's perspective is. I am not aware of OpenBSD moderating small email providers other than graylisting them in some cases. I was also never integrating DEI into OpenBSD, merely just replacing some language. In fact, the specific "DEI" diff is simply just a vulgar word that probably should be removed if it wasn't simply in a wordlist. It is like removing F bombs. Some things I do could be considered lefty but I am definitely not far left. Oct 6, 2025 11:17:51 AM UDENIX <[email protected]>: > >> The OpenBSD operating system itself is pretty good, my main issue is >> just that the /usr partition size can be really small in a lot of >> cases. >> I do largely agree with some of the legal related goals of the >> project, https://www.openbsd.org/policy.html >> But my main issues with OpenBSD is on the mailing lists...Read on if >> you'd like to read a story. >> ~~~ >> About a month ago I submitted a diff to tech@ removing a word from the >> web2 / words file. >> Theo rejected it with a harsh reply and it put a pretty bad taste >> in my mouth. > > I just read Theo de Raath's response and laughed out loud for quite a while. > I love that this project has no place for people who take offense at > everything. > >> Yesterday I submitted a sort of issue/problem (not really a glitch) to >> misc@ and got a pretty blunt reply from a random >> Gmail...not from an OpenBSD member and I didn't really care. >> Just deleted it and moved on. > > I think that if they are going to moderate small email providers such as > cock.li, they should do the same with large email providers such as gmail.com. > >> Then a developer sent me an email with a diff to fix the issue, >> but I don't have commit access. Why they sent it to me I don't know, >> maybe for me to forward it but I'm not sure. I ended up replying. >> It was only today that I learned about one of OpenBSD's goals >> which is to not be political. Such progressive changes are >> definitely not technical and now I've learned it doesn't >> make any sense under their goals. > > Social life inserts us into networks of power (politics) and systems of > meaning (religion). Even the attempt at neutrality is already a way of taking > a stand. Therefore, being 100% apolitical or areligious is, in practice, > impossible. > >> And to be clear, I am not out here to make OpenBSD some >> communist far-left project. > > Thank you, there are already too many open source projects like that. Just > look at the position some Linux distributions have taken on X11Libre simply > because the lead developer recognizes that "DEI" or similar policies > inevitably lead to discrimination against heterosexual white men and, when it > comes to choosing people, they prioritize a person's race, gender, ethnicity, > sexual orientation, disability, age, culture, class, or religion over their > skills. > >> And yes, my first diff was definitely pretty surface-level >> like some replies said, looking at fortunes-o it is pretty >> offensive. By that old logic I'd have to empty basically >> the entire file. >> ~~~ >> I do like OpenBSD as a project. The correctness approach >> from OpenBSD really changed how I wrote code, ever so slightly. >> Keep doing what you're doing. Especially the actual coding work. >> _Maybe_ enforce the harrassment and bullying rule of the list a >> bit more. >>
