Background

In the world of software development / computer science, there is a technical term “slave” which should be abandoned. This post is intended to be a list of software tools which use “slave” or which have gone through a rename process away from using the word “slave”.

This is a rewrite-and-extension of Why calling things slave is weird

More discussion/summary or this topic on Wikipedia

Definitions

What does “slave” mean as a technical term? “Master/slave is a model of communication where one device or process has unidirectional control over one or more other devices. In some systems a master is selected from a group of eligible devices, with the other devices acting in the role of slaves” Wikipedia

What does “slave” mean outside of technical fields? “a person held in servitude as the chattel of another”

Transitions or attempted transitions away from “slave”

  1. Drupal (2014)
  2. Django (2014)
  3. Kubernetes (2014)
  4. couchDB (2014)
  5. dotnetg/roslyn (2015)
  6. Swift (2015)
  7. mediawiki (2015), mediawiki RFC, mediawiki phabricator
  8. mesosphere (2015), phase 1 docs
  9. redis (2016)
  10. kickstarter/rack-attack (2016)
  11. apple/swift (2017)
  12. Kubernetes website (2017)
  13. python (2018)
  14. redis (2018)
  15. cpython (2018), more cpython
  16. helm (2018)
  17. jenkins (2018)
  18. redisson (2018)
  19. gitlab (2018)
  20. debian/salsa (2018)
  21. rails (2018), rails more
  22. angular (2019)
  23. elixir (2020)
  24. apollographql (2020)
  25. apache webserver docs (2020), git commits
  26. osquery (2020)
  27. golang (2020), hackernews golang discussion

Tools which haven’t changed yet

  1. MySQL (owned by Oracle)
  2. MariaDB
  3. Jenkins
  4. Apple

It’s worth noting here that postgres does not use “slave” in the vast majory of places- there are a very few remnants left.

MongoDB will switch in 4.6

  1. CNN - Los Angeles County (2003), Snopes summary
  2. StackOverflow - openfrog (2010)
  3. StackOverflow - Auden (2011)
  4. StackExchange question (2011)
  5. Drupal forums - sreynen (2014)
  6. Drupal forums - Les Lim (2014)
  7. aphyr (2015)
  8. Quora - John Whitlock (2015)
  9. twitter thread (2016)
  10. twitter - ISC.org (2017)
  11. contributor covenant (2018)
  12. Dreamhost company blog (2019)
  13. tweet - bmiddaugh (2019)
  14. Quora (2015)
  15. Mesos (2015) Mesos Jira (several cards; work done)
  16. twitter - justkelly_ok (2017)
  17. standby (2017)
  18. postgresql (2017)
  19. IETF (2018)
  20. Redis - antirez (2018)
  21. twitter - nmgrm (2018)
  22. twitter - andrestaltz (2018)
  23. twitter - chriseppstein (2018)
  24. Jenkins (2018)
  25. twitter - dhh (2018)
  26. twitter - holtbt (2019)
  27. twitter - softqueerfeels (2019)
  28. twitter - Geahk_Burchill (2019)
  29. twitter - astrophisacist (2019)
  30. theserverside.com article (2019)
  31. bitnami-docker-postgresql (2019)
  32. Microsoft- bias free communication (2020)
  33. twitter - ggraborenko (2020)
  34. twitter - JoshData (2020)
  35. twitter - ZachMcCormick (2020)
  36. twitter - youfoundm0lly (2020)
  37. twitter - justbalbi (2020)
  38. twitter - recfab (2020)
  39. twitter - workie (2020)
  40. twitter - LaurenSato (2020)
  41. twitter - eric_d_hancock (2020)
  42. twitter - grumpybozo (2020)
  43. twitter - humblebitcoiner (2020)
  44. twitter - irishpadres (2020)
  45. twitter - EnemyOfThePpl (2020)
  46. twitter - andrew_mason1 (2020)
  47. twitter - dokasto (2020)
  48. twitter - leahculver (2020)
  49. twitter - schmichael (Hashicorp) (2020)
  50. twitter - girl_debord (2020)
  51. twitter - ldn_photo (photography) (2020)
  52. twitter - arunsaitweets (2020)
  53. twitter - sheetaverma (Nutanix) (2020)
  54. Theo Schlossnagle (2020)
  55. twitter - aaronbassett (mongodb) (2020), mongodb official
  56. twitter - DanaMC18 (2020)
  57. twitter - pogo63_22485 (photography) (2020)
  58. twitter - nigelwalsh (Monzo) (2020), monzo 2, tone of voice guide
  59. zdnet UK NCSC (2020), NCSC.gov.uk
  60. twitter - capajj (LooopCo) (2020)
  61. twitter - JimStLeger (DPDKProject) (2020)
  62. twitter - (2020)

More information about microagressions