The following article was originally published on May 28, 2023 in a different publication. While the topics covered are extremely political and polarizing -- these events and statements, by significant organizations within the computer industry, are important to record. As such, this article is being re-published here, on The Lunduke Journal.
Both openSUSE and SUSE have a long history of discrimination against those with Conservative-leaning values.
The recently departed CEO of SUSE famously equated "Conservative" and "Right Wing"... with "Biggoted". And openSUSE (which is funded and controlled by SUSE) seems to be continuing in that tradition.
I'm documenting it here as one example -- of oh-so-many -- of the types of discrimination happening throughout the open source and Linux world right now.
NOTE: I spent several years working at SUSE -- and was elected to the openSUSE Board. I left both multiple years ago, and no longer have any affiliation with either SUSE or openSUSE.
In a recent post to one of the openSUSE mailing lists, someone raised their concern about usage of the "LGBTQ" flag colors used with the openSUSE Subreddit:
This reads to me to be a fairly level headed raising of an issue. And, as stated, the goal of the email was to modify imagery in order to "make the [openSUSE] subreddit more welcoming to everyone, regardless of their background or beliefs."
What does the LGBTQ image in question currently look like? It looks like this:
The notion that this imagery should be changed appeared to be supported by a number of people. With some pointing out that openSUSE has a tendency to only celebrate one "group"... at the exclusion of all others:
"It seems that you have forgotten to celebrate programmer's day, volunteer's day, mother's day, father's day, worker's day, women's day, families' day, ... :-((
Celebrating one day and not others is not very inclusive :-( Celebrating many days would mean creating more images, thus more work. Another option would be not celebrating any day, except for openSUSE's birthday :-)"
Again. You'll note the message is level-headed, kind, and in no way attacking of any specific group.
So.
How did openSUSE and SUSE leadership respond to these issues being raised?
Not. Well.
Here, Lars Marowsky-Bree, a high level employee at SUSE, stated that he is "quite happy to not be welcoming to those who feel offended by rainbow colors."
Atilla Pinter (openSUSE Board Member), chimed in with the following:
"the rainbow logo proved to be a great way of filtering out toxic individuals with a non-inclusive, disrespectful behavior early on, this is not a secret"
"And here's another misunderstanding, we will absolutely __NOT__ tolerate you."
Whew! Intense!
A clear statement, from openSUSE leadership, that they will "not tolerate" people who raise concerns about the rainbow flag usage.
Interestingly, that same openSUSE Board Member (Pinter) went on to declare the following:
"last I checked for example Christianity wasn't facing much oppression in the world, and didn't require much (if any) support"
According to reports from 2022, 360 million Christians faced extreme levels of persecution, world-wide -- with close to 6,000 killed specifically for their faith.
Do several other groups experience persecution? Heck yes, they do. (I'm Jewish, I've seen a lot of that first hand.) But to claim that Christians do not face "much oppression" and don't need "any support" is ridiculous and shows a clearly biggoted, biased view of the world.
Doesn't stop there.
Yet another openSUSE Board Member (Gertjan "Knurpht" Lettink) wrote this gem:
"Wanna be a bigot, a homophobe, then this community is not for you. If that means loss of users, so be it. Cutting out the rotten flesh is healthy. And needs to be done rather yesterday than tomorrow. Their membership needs to be revoked, they need to be banned, not moderated. The colors are about including people, with full respect for their being who they are. If you can't bring yourself to that, [CENSORED] off, find yourself some excluding "community"."
Holy smokes.
Rotten flesh!
In other words: If you don't pledge total loyalty to the LGBT flag, you are "rotten flesh" and you need to be banned from the openSUSE community entirely. Accompanied by some intense swearing.
And, you'll note, this was in response to emails that were simply expressing a desire to not actively fly the "Pride Flag".
And this is from the openSUSE leadership. The people with total control over moderation and project membership.
One of those openSUSE community members who politely raised concerns about the LGBT flag usage responded -- again, rather reasonably -- with this:
"Rotten flesh. So I am rotten flesh that needs to be cut out to you. That's quite the insult. Are insults permitted under your precious code of conduct? Or are some insults just more equal than others? Either way, this does not feel very inclusive to me."
At which point, Richard Brown -- SUSE employee, and past openSUSE Board Chairman -- got into the mix:
"yes, rotten flesh is a perfectly apt description"
Yowza. Both openSUSE and (parent company) SUSE are doubling down on the whole "if you don't actively praise the LGBT flag, you are rotten flesh" stance.
He continued:
"I really don't care where they go, as long as it's not anywhere with openSUSE in the name.
Ideally, I would hope they find that every other Linux, open source, and free software community is equally unwelcoming to them"
Once again... Are you Conservative? Don't pledge your allegiance to the LGBT flag? You are not welcome with openSUSE... and SUSE leadership hopes that you will not be welcome anywhere in the Linux or open source world.
SUSE and openSUSE leadership says that openly, proudly, and repeatedly.
Then one of the very highest ranking individuals within SUSE -- the CTO himself, Gerald Pfeifer... who also serves as the self-appointed openSUSE Chairman of the Board -- chimed in:
Which messages will be moderated?
What actions will be taken by the openSUSE Board?
Based on what we've seen from both SUSE employees and the openSUSE Board (who, again, view most conservatives as "Rotten Flesh")... my guess is that no action is going to be taken against the cruel, biggoted, profane attacks by his own team against the conservatives within the openSUSE community.
At which point, as the number of messages raising concerns about these aggressive, mean-spirited, biggoted attacks -- almost entirely from SUSE employees and openSUSE leadership, targetting the conservative community members -- began to increase...
The mailing list was locked down.
And then, just in case people might complain about that sort of discrimination against conservatives in other places, the other primary openSUSE mailing list was locked down as well:
If you are Conservative... remember that SUSE and openSUSE considers you to be "Rotten Flesh"... and that you must be silenced and banned.
Their words. Repeated and confirmed by their leadership.
Is this the only example of such attacks on those with "Conservative values" in the Tech world?
Oh, heck no. Unfortunately, this sort of thing happens with regularity.
Update
In the days the followed the original publishing of this article, many Conservatives were banned from participating within the openSUSE project -- including mass bannings in the openSUSE mailing lists, sub-Reddit, and other systems.
The Lunduke Journal received numerous emails from long-time openSUSE members who were banned -- in many cases without warning -- after making a statement that was not sufficiently, enthusiastically positive regarding the "Pride Flag".
This wave of banning included yours truly.
Which is fascinating, considering my history with SUSE.
A former elected Board Member of openSUSE. One of the highest profile employees in SUSE history. In fact... for several years, my name was so intimately tied to the SUSE and openSUSE brand that SUSE corporate issued a press release on the day I left the company.
But I, like so many others, did not actively waive the Pride Flag. This was an unforgivable offense. Punishable by banning, and a formal declaration of being "Rotten Flesh" who should not be welcome in any other "Linux, open source, and free software community".
To date, neither SUSE nor openSUSE has changed their "Rotten Flesh" policy... and none of the banned conservative contributors -- none of which, to my knowledge, made any discriminatory statements -- have been allowed to rejoin the project.
