• It’s “rice” because it’s asian; it’s a derogatory term used towards people and their cars. When I was younger, this term was used against asian drivers and their asian cars - and it was not a compliment.

          Looking at Urban Dictionary I see no mention of this anti-asian side of it, but it was there when I was growing up. Maybe others can chime in with their experience, I imagine it wasn’t the same everywhere.

          Not implying the people using it here are being racist, I don’t think they are aware of what I’m recalling here.

        • Think of the movie Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift. It’s used to describe unnecessary modifications to a street racer (led lights, decals, etc…) that was mockingly called “ricing” because it was prevalent in the asian street racing communities. (rice eaters…har har har…)

          I thought I was the only one who cringed whenever I heard that word. But this thread is making me realize I’m not crazy.

    • 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.

      • 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.