1 yr. ago • 98%

Why You Can't Currently Download Ubuntu 23.10

www.omgubuntu.co.uk Why You Can't Currently Download Ubuntu 23.10 - OMG! Ubuntu

Confused why you can't currently download Ubuntu 23.10, despite the fact it's been released (and blogs like mine are telling you it's out)? There's a

If you’re confused why you can’t currently download Ubuntu 23.10 despite the fact it’s been released (and blogs like mine are telling you it’s out) there is a reason.

[From Twitter]: "We have identified hate speech from a malicious contributor in some of our translations submitted as part of a third party tool outside of the Ubuntu Archive. The Ubuntu 23.10 image has been taken down and a new version will be available once the correct translations have been restored."

Now, I’m not 100% certain but from poking around the Ubuntu Desktop Installer GitHub — I know, I’m nosey — appears to have been (sadly) the Ukrainian translation file that was hijacked. I ran the text through a translator and …Honestly, I wish I hadn’t.

It’s a broad range of offensive sentences touching on politics, sexuality, and current events. Though shocking, none of it is particularly coherent in scope. It seems to be written to be provocative for provocations sake – the sort of stuff people post on X to farm likes from far-right bots.

Technology @lemmy.world Why You Can't Currently Download Ubuntu 23.10 - OMG! Ubuntu

TechNews @radiation.party [HN] You Can't Currently Download Ubuntu 23.10

86 comments

As an aside remark, it's really funny how everyone has to elaborate what the fuck they're talking about when they talk about Twitter.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter) Ubuntu explains the situation

could have just been written as

In a tweet, Ubuntu explains the situation

but the epic genius elon decided to destroy all brand recognition. Truly incredible thing to witness. Twitter literally got its own branded terms into common lexicon and he just set it all on fire.

182
- Their stupid ass logo looks too much like the old X11 logo. At least Xorg has a cirlcle thing. 😤
  
  76
  
  Which is amazing that X isn't being sued by Xorg. I guess they probably don't have the same amount of money (although Twitter is probably going to be negative soon). It's also not really competition, but they're both tech companies. I could easily see Xorg winning that one.
  
  5
  
  [This comment has been deleted by an automated system]
  
  3
- He didnt just set the brand recognition on fire, elon basically did everything someone would do if they wanted to intentionally run twitter into the ground.
  
  45
  
  Now spez needs to rename Reddit and make his idol proud.
  
  27
  
  Maybe that was his plan for creating true free speech, by driving everyone away from twitter to mastodon...
  
  A very 200iq plan, only cost him $44B
  
  12
- Or we all could just still call it twitter and tweets, and be done with it
  
  29
  
  I propose we just stop talking about it altogether.
  
  16
  
  No, It's called X now. Elon willed it so, and I'm happy to oblige. Posts are called X-cretions (or X-crement, if they are shitposts).
  
  12
  
  Like we call meta Facebook and alphabet google. 💁🏻‍♀️
  
  5
- No no, it's not 'a tweet ' anymore, it's 'an X(, formerly known as a tweet)'
  
  21
  
  "In an X(formerly known as a tweet) on X(formerly known as Twitter) ..."
  
  It just rolls off the tongue!
  
  13
- I hope this practice never dies.
  (Also has "the artist formerly known as Prince vibes".)
  
  17
  
  The Prince one is different, since he changed his name to something that can't be even spelled.
  
  6
- The current branding gives more a placeholder asset feeling than a memorable identity. Sorry the twitter logo isn't loading so we'll show you an "X" in the meantime
  
  12
- Permanently Deleted
  
  11
  
  𝕏cretion/𝕏creted
  
  1
- Why read X posts when you can watch X videos
  
  6
- I thought it was xeets
  
  5
  
  xcretes
  
  4
- "In a xweet (...)"
  
  3
  
  I prefer "xeet"
  
  5
  
  “In a xhit (…)”
  
  5
- They could just keep calling tweet, or tweet on X, maybe they just keep this shit to show how stupid the change is...
  
  1
  
  "in a recent Twix.."
  
  1
- On some news stories I've been seeing them refer to it as "the social media company X"
  
  1
  
  @fadingembers
  So the company x social that existed before the muskrat bought twitter then, right?
  @GnuLinuxDude
  
  2
SMH what is wrong with people.

72
- I mean… it’s likely just some Russian trolls fucking around
  
  47
  
  Ah yes I remember Russians that spread malware with node-ipc... oh wait, it was Ukrainians!
  
  -6
  
  The irony of that statement.
  
  -30
- Some people just need a punch in the face to understand why they shouldn't use hate speech.
  
  24
  
  A punch in the face with a chair…
  
  10
64
- Redneck, or pirate, or leet speak language options are there to let developers test the translations without them having to be bilingual.
  
  49
Nobody is even slightly concerned that this made it to release? if they can shove in hate speech without anyone noticing, cant be much harder to slowly introduce a backdoor over several commits.

56
- Minecraft got in trouble when the Afrikaans translation had the n-word (in English) due to a malicious translator. CDPR had an issue with the Ukrainian translation making references to the ongoing war.
  
  This sort of thing happens somewhat frequently. It's the same reason how fake sign language interpreters can hold positions. It's hard to verify the accuracy of a translation in a language you don't speak. They have to trust that the translator did their job right.
  
  Translations are usually just text strings. No reasonable project would allow translators to write code.
  
  68
  
  I mean honestly though, if there are code reviews, how hard would it be to just make a quick "translation review", putting the stuff through a translator program, and verifying it's not obvious bullshit? Especially for new/unknown contributors. Of course it's additional work, again, but a sanity check should easily be possible.
  
  12
- I would assume since it was a block of raw text in Ukrainian in a translation file, it would have passed more under the radar than something like a backdoor. I do not know how things are reviewed before being pushed to release though.
  
  29
- Not really, not only because of the language but also because the same scrutiny between code and content wouldn't have to be the same. I also don't expect core aspects of the distribution, e.g kernel, package manager, cryptography libraries, to be verified the same way than a random software, e.g Kdenlive. So... is it bad, absolutely. Does it mean everything should be questioned again? Probably not.
  
  23
- I'm sure more people know C or Python than Ukrainian at Canonical. It looks like this particular change has been authorized by a third-party localization project, though I'm not sure the whole process works.
  
  17
- Translations are not going to be analyzed as thoroughly as code, and this was still found quite quickly. Submitted code is analyzed much more thoroughly, often by multiple members or the project.
  
  7
- It is very concerning, absolutely. With that said, it's entirely possible localization/translation reviews work differently than code reviews.
  
  6
- Well but they DID notice
  
  2
- Most translations are contributed by external users for languages that the project developers don't speak themselves, so they can't always check everything unless there's multiple active translators for one language.
  
  1
  
  Ukrainian has enough speakers for there to be multiple translators, doesn't it?
  
  1
- But oPeN sOuRce iS sAfe.
  
  -38
  
  Lol. You have to understand the context here. This is just translations. Actual code has many, many more eyes on it. An entire university was banned from submitting code to Linux, because of two dumbasses. They found and fixed genuine bugs. Built up lots of trust. Then violated that trust with actual use-after-free bugs submitted intentionally.
  
  The submitted "patches" to the development branch was to prove it's easy to get exploits into high profile open source projects. They ultimately proved the contrary. Making their "research" bunk. The code they submitted never made it past the development testing phase.
  
  17
This is just messed up and sad. Why do people do this stuff? Why do they have to act like assholes?

41
- If you're genuinely confused, it's because a lot of people live broken lives and it brings them joy to bring others down.
  
  31
  
  I wish I was tbh, it's sad that stuff like this happens and it's very unfortunate... it bewilders me so much, to see someone go out their way to do shit like this but I guess when you're full of hate you'll do stupid shit like this
  
  1
- If they could understand the situation, their heads would explode. But they can't, that's why.
  
  2
  
  yep, sadly that's true
  
  1
- Kinda answered your own question there
  
  0
Someone has been defacing OpenStreetMap with stuff like this for months as well. It's pretty sad.

39
- I contribute to OSM a lot and thankfully I haven’t ran into vandalism yet. I’ve always been kind of surprised it isn’t way more common. I guess maybe it is, just not around me.
  
  12
Im amazed by peoples creativity.

I havent thought until now that such things like translations can be misused for hate speech.

36
- Honestly, I'm more surprised that it wasn't caught by some review process. We normies may not consider it. But with 8 billion individuals on this planet, the chances of this happening is near 100%, without sufficient safeguards in place. If this is what happens to something as obvious as translation, imagine how compromised all those cryptic open source code must be!
  
  1
Permanently Deleted

30
- And why companies usually don't allow for community translations outside of mods, or indies taking "no responsibility" when releasing them when donated.
  
  It's a legal and PR risk.
  
  20
The commit in question if anyone's interested: https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-desktop-provision/commit/6f4028057e55cebfc53cc45cb39831f7e6a176cb

I'm not sure why the author's account is not clickable - has he deleted it?

13
But why not release 23.10 but without the affected language pack? The Ukrainian translation can be released once the vandalism is fixed.

9
Weird, I downloaded the Kubuntu 23.10 ISO yesterday. There wasn't s link on the site but I changed the 23.04 link to 23.10 and it got in fine.

5

You've viewed 86 comments.