Little is known for sure about the composition of the book of Lunduke. The text of the Book of Lunduke refers to Lunduke as a developer named "Bryan," asserted to live some time between the 1980s and mid to late 20XYs. The exact relationship between the authors of the book of Lunduke and an actual developer named "Bryan" is complicated. Scholars believe the historical figure "Bryan Lunduke" is actually a composite of at least three distinct individuals, whose writings differ dramatically from one another both in form and in content. ## Lunduke 1 > _This potato runs Linux._ > -Lunduke 1 > _Once I got used to \[Xmonad\], I fell in love with it. I'm like this is the greatest thing since sliced bread... I'd recommend it if you're super super super nerdy._ > -Lunduke 1 The consensus view among experts is that the first volume in /dev/lunduke1 is the work of the historical Bryan Lunduke, and was supplemented with commentaries by contemporaries such as Christopher Fisher during and after the time of Lunduke's original writing. This volume shows Lunduke to be a passionate advocate for Linux and open source. Nearly all his appearances begin with a recitation of a new system that runs Linux, from underwater robots to automated cow milking systems, and the author is clearly intimately familiar with the technological details of the Linux ecosystem. This is in stark contrast to the author of what has been called Lunduke 2. ## Lunduke 2 > _I'm going to try to convince you that programmers are evil. Not that "there's some bad software out there", but that programmers, in their hearts, are bad people._ > -Lunduke 2 > _I've also spent a lot of time managing software developers over the years. I know how awful they are. I know how black and icy and tar-filled their hearts are._ > -Lunduke 2 In contrast, in second Lunduke, we observe a clearly distinct individual. The author of second Lunduke almost exclusively offers condemnations of Linux, given over many years, in a series of public denunciations known as the "Linux Sucks" speeches. In these public condemnations, the author of second Lunduke is never accompanied by C. Fisher, as was nearly always the case in Lunduke 1. Further, the author of Lunduke 2 never appears in the "Action Show" format, making a strong case that these are the works of a historically distinct author or authors writing under the Lunduke name. Some scholars have suggested that the authors of first and second Lunduke may be the same individual in different stages of his development, a proposal known as "L'un duke Hypothesis," a French portmanteau for "The One (L'un) duke." According to this hypothesis, the absence of C. Fisher in second Lunduke points to a falling out between the two individuals, one which perhaps turned the author of first Lunduke away from Linux entirely, and toward the lengthy public denunciations observed in Lunduke 2. This hypothesis is considered discredited. Following a more detailed analysis of the timeline, it has become clear that the work of Lunduke 2 was contemporaneous with the work of Lunduke 1, and strongly indicates that this is not the work of a single individual. In order to salvage the "One Lunduke" hypothesis, we must account not for one change of heart of the author, but at least ten instances of oscillation between the most passionate advocacy and most intense denunciation. This is unlikely, to say the least. The status of Lunduke 3 is less clear. ## Lunduke 3 > _He actually named me there as "notable reactionary tech fascist, Bryan Lunduke" so good on ya! If you say it two more times, I appear in the mirror and I go "It's showtime" and it gets crazy._ > -Lunduke 3 > _I got a flood of emails of people who got kicked out of that project, banned from their mailing lists, banned from voting in their elections, all because of their politics. And they use the Code of Conduct to justify that._ > -Lunduke 3 Finally, in third Lunduke, written nearly a decade later, we observe an author who appears to share only minimal overlap with the two authors above. In third Lunduke, the author or authors are focused almost entirely on tech journalism and political bias. The style of Lunduke 3 is significantly more calm and tempered than either of the former Lundukes. For unclear reasons, despite the more diplomatic style, it is only in Lunduke 3 that the author describes having been widely denounced, blacklisted, and banned from various open source projects. While Lunduke 1 and 2 rarely agree on anything, one point of agreement between the two authors was the unacceptably large degree of cruft, bloat, and unreliability in the system component known as Xorg, X11, Xwindows, or simply X. In contrast, the author of Lunduke 3 appears to defend Xorg against what by his time is a widespread backlash against it, and Lunduke 3 contains several speeches in which the author defends the continuation of the project in a fork known as XLibre. The consensus view among scholars is that the later chapters of the book of Lunduke represent the work of an ongoing school of political demagogues who wrote under the name of the original Lundukes, advocating for such things as "getting politics out of tech," "just being nerdy," and "being excellent to each other." This is in stark contrast to Lunduke 2, who gave public speeches championing Windows, and condemning developers for, quote, "the blackness of their hearts." > _Software developers, did you intend to write code that would never get run? Was that your purpose? Did you intend for significant portions of your functions to just stop being executed entirely? Never! Never, that's never the goal. You don't want to write code that never gets run. But it happens. You can't help it. Because in your heart you're driven by something black and dark. Is there another explanation?_ > -Lunduke 2 ## Conclusion? We end with several quotes from a much older work, one to which scholars have often compared the book of Lunduke, namely, the book of Isaiah. The parallels between these works are remarkable. For unclear reasons, both authors appear to hate holidays. _13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations— I cannot bear your worthless assemblies. 14 Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them._ -Isaiah 1:13-14 > _Fisher: So today's Halloween. > Lunduke: Y'know what's great about that? > Fisher: What? > Lunduke: Nothing. I hate Halloween. I absolutely abhor Halloween._ > -Lunduke 1 It is possible that we are missing something about both of these works. Much of the truth is likely lost to history. According to legend, Isaiah was eventually killed by being sawed in half for his polemics. In Lunduke 3, we see hints of the author being increasingly hated by a larger contingent for his polemics as well. What are we to infer from this? The answer is unclear. > _Isaiah, my children -- they are troublesome and they are stubborn. Do you accept upon yourself to be stricken and demeaned by them?_ > -From a Midrash commentary on Isaiah In the end, all we have is the words of the authors, whoever they may have been, and whatever they may have meant. > _9 He said, “Go and tell this people: > Be ever hearing, but never understanding; > be ever seeing, but never perceiving. > 10 Make the heart of this people calloused; > make their ears dull > and close their eyes. > Otherwise they might see with their eyes, > hear with their ears, > understand with their hearts, > and turn and be healed."_ > -Isaiah 6:9