Ubuntu chief responds to sexism allegations

Sam Varghese
Thursday, 12 November 2009 03:32

Opinion and Analysis

Shuttleworth said feminist fundamentalism was damaging to the cause of women. "The sort of acrimonious knee-jerk accusations that fly around in this forum are not constructive debate. This is not a forum that seeks to address real problems – instead, it champions the mistaken notion that women are being systematically excluded from responsibility and authority in the free software world," he wrote.

"Comments... that support that world view are enthusiastically embraced, especially when presented by men. Comments that challenge it are automatically debased. The result is an echo chamber that does little to improve the world.

"If there are women in this forum who are here because they want to participate in a vibrant and positive free software project, then I welcome you all to participate in Ubuntu. I’m confident that, like (Ubuntu community member) Mackenzie (Morgan), you’ll be able to find innumerable ways to exercise your talents and socialize (sic) with like-minded individuals."

Schroder, however, wasn't done with her allegations, and in a response to Shuttleworth accused him of attacking and discrediting the messenger, rather than dealing with issues.

Later, Schroder apologised for using the term "sexist twit". "I swear I am getting senile, because I forgot to say: Mark, I am sorry for calling you a sexist twit. That was low-class and uncalled-for, and I am sincerely sorry, and will watch my words more carefully in the future.," she wrote.

Meanwhile, Ubuntu chief technology officer Matt Zimmerman has cast his hat into the ring on this issue, though not as prominently as he did last time.

Zimmerman posted a comment on the blog of Canonical employee Graham Binns, which said:

"Thanks for sharing your perspective on diversity in the Ubuntu project, and for showing your support of people involved in activism. To me, success for the project means much more than closing Bug #1. Ubuntu was founded on the concept of a principled community, under the belief that cooperation was an essential part of fulfilling the vision. A community which only cooperates with like-minded people is missing out on key insights from other points of view."

Bug #1 in the Launchpad bug tracking system, where bugs in Ubuntu are listed, is "Microsoft has a majority market share" - not really a bug in Ubuntu but a statement about the intention to grab more market share for Ubuntu.

The first question Shuttleworth was asked by MarkDude referred to this bug: "how important is having a diverse group of contributors (women & minority folks) to solving Bug #1?"

His response was "not especially, but it makes the project more interesting." This was interpreted as sexist and led to the outburst by Schroder.