If "Master/Slave" terminology in computing sounds bad now, why not change it to "Dom/Sub"?

Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.com to Showerthoughts@lemmy.world – 609 points –

It sounds way less offensive to those who decry the original terminology's problematic roots but still keeps its meaning intact.

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I think very few people mind changing it, and a few people want it changed, so it's slowly shifting across various use cases. I've only discussed the change from master/slave terminology with one person that affirmatively supported the change, and they didn't know that there's still slavery in the world today.

I don't know what to make of that, other than to say ending human slavery ought to be a higher priority than ending references to it.

I think very few people mind changing it

I doubt that. Do you know how many system configurations depend on these keywords? Do you have any idea how many hours of work and system outages this would cause?

I've seen a few projects rename during major version upgrades, when everyone has to read the release notes and make changes, anyways.

Plenty of old deployed systems may continue using master/slave terminology, and of course some projects will stick to that language even decades in the future, but it was once more prevalent than it is now, and that declining trend looks like it will continue.