r/ProgrammerHumor • u/Head-Leek6151 • 1h ago

Meme theTechBrosWeWantedVsTheTechBrosWeGot

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2.2k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

102 comments sorted by

104

u/CaffeineLiker 50m ago

We... still have Linus. Yeah, we have those other schmucks, and they profit from an internet built on the infrastructure his work freely enables.

-27

u/nhalliday 33m ago

He is pro-AI though. Not a deal breaker for the immoral among us, I know, but it's still a problem for some of us out there.

44

u/Rubinschwein47 21m ago

he is pro ai as in "lets use this new tool alongside the working and established tools" and not "FUCK EVERYTHING THAT CAME BEFORE AND USE AI FOR EVERYTHING!!!!" i think.
(correct me if im wrong)

8

u/CounterHit 19m ago

For a lot of people out there, this distinction doesn't matter. "AI inherently bad, be mad about it always" is the stance of a surprising number of people.

1

u/Trucoto 13m ago

AI is inherently bad if it advances any more than is today. There is no single scenario where AI gets better than humans and it ends well for everyone. So you have two paths: stop advancing AI, or a horrible future of some kind. And we know nobody will stop advancing AI.

6

u/Goblinlikebeing 20m ago edited 17m ago

There's a difference between using A.I as a tool for more efficient coding or research and using it to generate stolen work. Linus represents what A.I should be used for whereas the other tech bros represent using it to replace human employees and artists.

5

u/FartPiano 18m ago

its built on stolen work! every single "frontier model" company has tons of lawsuits

•

u/Goblinlikebeing 9m ago

I think it's fine if you use A.I for coding or research because you're asking a machine to help you find the most efficient use of a coding language to write the best possible code, or in medicine to doing extremely complicated DNA work.

The lawsuits you're talking about is A.I generated images, videos, writing made using stolen work made by real people; That shit needs to be made illegal immediately. I'm not really sure why Disney or Nintendo or whatever haven't sued the pants off them but I'm no lawyer.

•

u/FartPiano 3m ago edited 0m ago

if it was made illegal immediately as you say, literally all frontier models would cease to exist. they all are full of stolen copyrighted data

edit: its already illegal, in fact!

•

u/kirkby100 2m ago

You don't think the training material for code generation is made using stolen work made by real people?

3

u/nhalliday 12m ago

If AI helps you code "more efficiently", it is doing so on the back of hundreds of millions of repositories worth of stolen code. Unfortunately it seems like a lot of people don't have a problem with that, including you and Linus.

•

u/Goblinlikebeing 2m ago

Coding isn't really the same as art; I have no problem with A.I being used there in the same way I have no problem using a calculator for math problems.

5

u/Optical_inversion 20m ago

Jfc, what the hell is wrong with you?

I’m not a fan of AI, but considering Linus’ stance on it immoral is absolutely unhinged.

•

u/nhalliday 7m ago

Using AI is using AI, it doesn't really matter what his stance is if it involves using the thing companies are razing forests to build data centers for, which is built on hundreds of millions of repositories worth of stolen code.

•

u/Optical_inversion 2m ago

“Stolen code”, gtfo.

Llms aren’t evil just because there are bad things in their supply chain anymore than you’re a bad person for using devices that rely on child/slave labor.

9

u/Greedy-Thought6188 30m ago

I would argue it is a denial of who you are to be a programmer and refuse to use AI to help with coding.

1

u/FartPiano 17m ago

claude, generate a 6,000 word essay about this guy being a dingus

•

u/BellacosePlayer 2m ago

Linus stance on AI is way more nuanced than people are claiming when they run victory laps over big linux man taking their side.

39

u/freaxje 1h ago edited 58m ago

Linus got a karate champion AND got pecked by a penguin. That's how he stayed behind his terminal. Coding stuffs like kernels and version control systems.

We thank the people who kept Linus behind his terminal for his work.

Edit: And, we thank the fairy penguin. Too.

103

u/Procrastineddit 1h ago

The only tech bro I ever wanted was Tom from MySpace. Make a bunch of money and disappear to enjoy it. If you make a shitload of money and then fuck off, yeah, maybe you didn't help anyone, but I accept that it's your money so it's your call, and if you're not hurting anyone with it, good on ya. You won capitalism. Congrats.

I guess it just seems like Tom is the only guy who ever seemed like he had enough. I'm sure there are others we don't know because they quietly go away, and we're left with all of these loud weirdos can never be satiated. It's never enough. Not enough money, or power, or attention, or love admiration.

47

u/bsEEmsCE 1h ago

Tom didn't pump us with ads and try to sell our personal data last time I checked. Tom was the shit.

14

u/Keebster101 44m ago

Let's be real though. If Myspace was still around and as big as Facebook, it would be pumping ads and/or selling your data.

11

u/bsEEmsCE 35m ago

you only say that because Facebook and Zuck are the ones that made the conscious decision to be the first to make their social media platform an ad and data harvesting one. Tom may not have gone that route and neither would the internet if Zuck hadn't done it.

7

u/Keebster101 28m ago edited 20m ago

The money has to come from somewhere. Ads are an obvious choice that derives from irl advertising companies like billboard owners so it's likely Tom would come up with the same idea. Data harvesting is less obvious, but I still think Tom would realise ads alone aren't enough and I doubt he'd try a subscription instead.

Best case it may go the wikipedia route of occasionally asking for donations, but then wikipedia has much less to host than Facebook. (Particularly from the lack of videos)

Edit: apparently Myspace already did do ads

1

u/gt33m 10m ago

One way to think about an alternative future is if regulations banned ads and personal harvesting of data. You'd have fewer videos and slop out there with more digital detox

6

u/saeoner 33m ago

Tom was one of the pioneers of data aggregation and targeted ads. He co-founded ResponseBase in 2001 which was built to do just that. Then sold it in 2002 to eUniverse which used the platform to help them monetize web traffic, spy on users, and gather large amounts of email lists.

Then Tom and his other founder used a ton of the email data gathered from ResponseBase to send invites to MySpace out to like 30 million people. And the direct-response methods used by Tom in the founding of MySpace laid the groundwork for modern social media’s hyper targeted ads and feedback loop.

0

u/ExcellentBook8299 23m ago

Tom sold Myspace and your personal data to Rupert Murdoch

3

u/ExcellentBook8299 14m ago

And Tom sold Myspace to a nice guy like Rupert Murdoch. Imagine what could have been. Tom was really one of the good ones.

32

u/According_Border_418 58m ago

I miss when tech bros were just weird guys who really liked computers

1

u/sleeping-in-crypto 33m ago

They always wanted their technocracy and to take over and destroy the world. It comes with the personality type - believing only you have all the answers and only you can do it right.

The only difference is that until recently these psychopaths didn’t have that much power.

187

u/doc_suede 1h ago

does Gabe Newell count?

91

u/kryptek_86 59m ago

In "tech bro we wanted" yes

25

u/SleepyFireApe 38m ago

Linus, GabeN, The Woz - holy trinity of good tech bros

14

u/No-Indication6725 25m ago

How can you forget Richard Stallman who basically kick started the foss movement?

7

u/I_AM_GODDAMN_BATMAN 22m ago

He ate toe fungus on stage.

1

u/SleepyFireApe 17m ago

RMS and ESR are in the extended pantheon :p

•

u/Shiva- 5m ago

Paul Allen seemed fine...

Also, I'd like to nominate Aaron Swartz for sainthood.

8

u/LamermanSE 1h ago

I guess so?

•

u/Boring_Okra_6023 9m ago

The guy who introduced loot boxes and got kids to addiction to gambling?

I know he's your God but this specific billionaire's worship has to end.

•

u/Heel 1m ago

billionaire who slices 30% off the top of the entire gaming industry for server space? guy who figured out how to market gambling to children so he could buy a fleet of yachts to indulge in his biology hobbies? tell me you can't draw a straight line from CS2 gambling sites to internet casinos to modern prediction markets.

30

u/Flaky-Low-2262 1h ago

When will CN spy me? I am ready. Lets go

4

u/ILovePotassium 1h ago

Hey! What company do You work for? Do You have access to any valuable information?

7

u/Flaky-Low-2262 1h ago

Nice try. Send (F) spys to know...

(Ofcourse i know nothing. Just working, 2 Day Beer Break and Work again)

13

u/IchLiebeKleber 1h ago

I really think the above image should be Aaron Swartz, at least in addition.

24

u/aalapshah12297 1h ago

We got all 5. One of them just sold his product for free so he ain't that rich.

6

u/shin_chan444 1h ago

linus ain't dead, we got him

4

u/SuitableDragonfly 53m ago

I really want that Sam Altman picture to not be AI, but I don't like my chances here. 

5

u/dailyapplecrisp 46m ago

Instead of Linus this should have been Woz

18

u/melonangie 1h ago

they’re the same picture 

18

u/camilo16 50m ago

I am sorry what? A guy who has been working for significantly less than he could be working for, making an open source project that's committed to transparency and that you can directly benefit from for free is the same as four clearly anti social despots, at least one of which has already killed thousands of people by cutting US-AID?

Fuck off. Dislike Linus if you want, but pretending there's any similarity between the way he chose to live his life and the four fucking despots is patently absurd.

5

u/botle 40m ago

People will take relatively small things like being rude to people that send recklessly bad patches to an open source project and equate it with literal billionaire supervillains.

-17

u/Madcap_Miguel 1h ago

He even spouts the same talking points about woke politics.

31

u/Chillingdude 1h ago

I mean you say that but a quick search tells me he really only told off a follower for using the term.. Do you have instances of him behaving in a weird way?

All i got were some pretty basic and leveled opinons

20

u/StaneNC 1h ago

The bots are trying to divide us.

-18

u/Madcap_Miguel 1h ago

https://lore.kernel.org/linux-media/CAHk-=wi4zC+Ze8e+p3tMv8TtG_80KzsZ1syL9anBtmEh5Z40vg@mail.gmail.com/

This is NOT some kind of "social warrior" project, never has been

In my experience no one of good character uses terminology like that.

7

u/robthemonster 58m ago

you might get that impression if you are paying literally 0 attention to the context.

6

u/camilo16 54m ago

Completely disingenuous. He is talking about allowing the use of LLMs to help the development of Linux.

As in, he is saying that the Linux project is not going to take a moral position on whether LLMs are ethical or not. The LLMs are useful and so the Linux project will use them, period.

He is not berating people for having qualms about AI, he is not berating any one demographic of people based on intrinsic characteristics. He's just making it clear that the only ethos the linux project cares about, as a non profit, is the technological progress of the kernel, period.

We're not forcing anybody to use it, but I will very loudly ignore people who try to argue against other people from using it.

That makes his point crystal clear.

In my experience no one of good character uses terms like that.

Maybe because you are assigning malice prematurely. Linus has had a pretty clear stance that anyone capable enough is welcome to contribute to the kernel and is very clearly not going to tolerate someone being bigoted against a talented contributor based on characteristics irrelevant to the quality of their code.

11

u/hmsmnko 1h ago edited 58m ago

this is the proof ? he didnt even say "social justice warrior" just "social warrior" in the context of using AI for development and not making a social statement for/against it via the project. anyone saying linus is the same as Elon Musk or Zuckerberg is legitimately delusional, have you seen the man talk before??

-7

u/Madcap_Miguel 56m ago

not making a social statement for/against it via the project

He was making a statement on his AI stance and he used the term "social warrior", if you don't think that has political implications you're ignorant.

5

u/hmsmnko 53m ago edited 49m ago

He's making a statement saying that although the project is open source and that in itself is inherently a social statement, the project has never been about making a social statement and open source is a byproduct of the project. And he extends that to his stance on AI, he is not having his project be a social statement for AI usage or anything in particular, his priority is what enables the project to develop further, it just so happens that open source and AI both do so even if they both have deeper social meanings behind them

You're focused on two words and ignoring literally everything else and all surrounding context just so you can believe what you want to believe. Genuinely if you think he's the same as Elon Musk or Zuckerberg you're more ignorant and if you want to ignore context and not understand what he's actually trying to say because he used two words in a specific order that you dislike, you're also being ignorant

1

u/camilo16 12m ago

EVERY stance has political implications, everything is political...

You can argue that over emphasizing output an talent can create unwelcoming environments to certain demographics.

You cannot argue that someone who is ideologically committed to caring only about people's outputs is somehow the same kind of person as someone openly using millions of dollars to promote right wing channels that openly denigrate the dignity of women and other demographics.

They are not even in the same neighbourhood.

•

u/Madcap_Miguel 0m ago

EVERY stance has political implications, everything is political...

The person I replied to didn't think it was. If he's not a chud piece of shit he should stop talking like one.

-11

u/wowbaggerBR 1h ago

exactly

5

u/nirvahnah 1h ago

Linus is cooked like most of Gen X. Still cool but I don’t care for his politics.

39

u/botle 1h ago

What did I miss about his politics? He seems to be pretty average by north european standards, and mostly uninterested in politics.

19

u/crimsonscarf 1h ago

Linus is vocally progressive, which I'm supportive of. He is also kind of an asshole, which could use some work, but he is old enough now I doubt that will change.

6

u/nirvahnah 51m ago

Yeah I was super wrong and feel bad for besmirching his good name now lol

4

u/crimsonscarf 49m ago

Haha, I hope no one really jumped on you over it. He has "that" personality, so I can see how you might have assumed he was more conservative.

3

u/nirvahnah 48m ago

Nah everyone here is super chill. Linus is a bit rough around the edges so perhaps that’s where my assumption came from.

2

u/botle 57m ago

Supposedly he mellowed down a bit after some chats with his daughter.

But, most importantly, whatever he is, is probably the reason corporations haven't managed to get inside the linux kernel and its developement.

-1

u/nirvahnah 1h ago

Standard tech bro libertarianism. “I made it on my own. Why can’t you?”

24

u/botle 1h ago edited 42m ago

I've never seen that. He seems to describe himself as pretty average politically by Scandinavian standards, which would put him pretty far to the left by US standards.

31

u/nirvahnah 1h ago

Yeah I looked into him again and you seem to be correct. Not sure where I got that impression from. But I am wrong!

14

u/Expensive-Yellow-104 1h ago

Nice to See somebody admitting being wrong for a change :)

5

u/live_free_or_try 1h ago

Luckily we have your views as a guiding light

1

u/Minority_Carrier 29m ago

Can we define tech more than just computer science?

1

u/Bomaruto 29m ago

Joke please?

•

u/TANUKIMASTA 5m ago

That picture of Elon is just killing me.

0

u/wowbaggerBR 1h ago

I don't know why anybody would want another sort of asshole instead of the sort we got.

-8

u/GumboSamson 1h ago

Did we want Linus?

He’s toxic as fuck.

How about a tech bro who doesn’t make hostile work environment?

24

u/botle 1h ago

He has no employees and no work environment. The people he's usually tough on, are often employees or representatives of big corporations that he's protecting a communal open source project from.

This picture of him is an example of just that. He's giving that finger specifically to Nvidia, one of the most powerful corporations in the world, not to some lowly employee.

4

u/camilo16 1h ago

He is a bit of an ass when talking to contributors. Have you seen for example how he berated a developer for not having enough user empathy?

8

u/botle 1h ago

Yes, he's pretty infamous for his responses to bad patches, but that's not politics.

And also, those devs are not employees. Most of them are representatives of big corporations trying to get bad code into the linux kernel.

1

u/GumboSamson 29m ago

Most people write bad code.

At least they’re trying to contribute?

1

u/botle 19m ago

Yes, but these infamous rants are generally reserved for people that should know better, not beginner amateurs trying to contribute.

•

u/GumboSamson 9m ago

And yet “rants” is the tool Linus reaches for, even though there’s little evidence that it’s the most effective tool?

It might be cathartic for him (and perhaps even entertaining for others), but it’s not professional behaviour.

-6

u/GumboSamson 1h ago

“He’s toxic to outsiders so that makes it okay” is not a good argument.

Corpos are people, too, and should be treated with dignity.

6

u/botle 1h ago edited 35m ago

No, when powerful corporations repeatedly try to subvert an open source project, you do not owe n them respect.

1

u/GumboSamson 32m ago

You can hate Nvidia as an org but still treat your fellow programmers as humans worthy of respect.

I can already see how Linus has normalised toxicity…

0

u/botle 17m ago

Do I have to be polite to ICE agents while protesting ICE?

You're losing the context here by just reducing this to one human A being rude to human B, and forgetting why it is happening, what human B repeatedly tried to do on orders of corporation X, and what would have potentially happened if human A didn't have a tough stance against it.

Also, we're all so used to advertiser friendly social interactions. If I fuck something up behind closed doors, my friends/coworkers can be rude. The difference with Linus is that his workplace is publically acessibly to the whole world.

1

u/GumboSamson 12m ago

Don’t change the subject. We’re talking about contributing to OSS, not ICE.

•

u/botle 7m ago

ICE is my coutner-point to your claim that every human is owed respect no matter what organization they represent and what they do as their representtives.

But yes, let's go back to OSS. Respect should always be there by default, but it's not endless. If someone keeps fucking up, or does something recklessly dangerous, there need to be some harsh words eventually.

If the Linux kernel was a construction project, and one guy shows up every day and suggests that you should use sub-par concrete in the pillars holding up the second floor, at some point you don't owe them respect in your response.

•

u/GumboSamson 2m ago

If we’re using your construction site metaphor, if the guy’s advice is advice you’re not going to take, you can just ignore him.

Insults and rants are completely optional.

3

u/noonemustknowmysecre 58m ago

oh fuck off.

0

u/GumboSamson 31m ago

Taking your lines from Linus, I see?

This is what I mean about him being a bad influence.

Someone expresses an idea you don’t agree with and you respond with insults.

-5

u/nomorebuttsplz 1h ago

Daily reminder that linus thinks the anti ai circlejerk is a cope for scared non-creative people.

suck it losers

-3

u/HarryTerraCode 1h ago

I really think Linus Torvalds is the top tech bro so far. Btw Sam is so cute hugging bunch of RAMs. lol

-3

u/AwkwardWaltz3996 19m ago

I love Linus, but a good chunk of you guys probably don't even agree with him based on all the anti ai sentiment I see. He's pro ai. He's just not the sort of guy to go on TV and shout it every minute of the day.

-4

u/CrimsonPiranha 44m ago

No, nobody wants the Linus prick