• kema@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    to “rice” a system you are often changing a lot of “dot files”, hidden configuration files on your system which begin with a period in the name. having a bunch of dots (like rice) is descriptive but also can be a reference to a racist term used about tuning asian vehicles.

    when linux users use it they’re usually just referring to a bunch of altered configuration files which are generally dot files. thus, a rice. but im not sure the term would exist if the racist term hadn’t already.

    • Hemingways_Shotgun
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      im not sure the term would exist if the racist term hadn’t already.

      It definitely wouldn’t. That’s not really a term that occurs “organically” in computer language. “Rice” has nothing to do with computers, so it would have had to come from somewhere else.