Bug 159602 - Consider replacing "Master Password" by "Primary Password"
Summary: Consider replacing "Master Password" by "Primary Password"
Status: RESOLVED NOTABUG
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: LibreOffice (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
24.2.0.3 release
Hardware: All All
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Dialog-UX
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Reported: 2024-02-06 17:10 UTC by lol
Modified: 2026-03-26 07:36 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

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Description lol 2024-02-06 17:10:52 UTC
LO use the word "Master password". This word should be replaced. 
See https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/primary-password-replacing-master-password

I think, we should follow the example of Mozilla and replace it too.
Comment 1 Julien Nabet 2024-02-06 18:03:27 UTC
-1000000 for me, removing a word never removed a pb.

What will be the next step? Fahrenheit 451 where each time someone considers a book disturbing, it would be burned?
Should we ask to artists with name beginning with "MC" to change their name since MC means "Master of Ceremony"?

Anyway, since there have been already things like that in LO, I suppose it'll be done anyway.
Comment 2 lol 2024-02-15 16:48:12 UTC
I'm talking about LO. Not artists or something else. I want to discuss whether this should also changed in LO.
Comment 3 Julien Nabet 2024-02-16 08:30:29 UTC
Ok so if I use the same way as you, "Master password" concerns only LO software so "doesn't exclude or damage people here".
Comment 4 QA Administrators 2026-02-16 03:13:40 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 6 Heiko Tietze 2026-02-19 07:51:48 UTC
Renaming the code repository has been discussed a couple of years ago and is tracked at https://redmine.documentfoundation.org/issues/3442. 

Before we touch "Master Password" to avoid wrong associations we should first think of "Master Document". And git grep "Master" *.hrc |wc -l returns 34 occurrences (with zero slaves). So a lot of potential impolite wording. My view: changing the "master" to something breaks familiarity and does not improve usability. OTOH, we ultimately decided to replace an offensive term in bug 159169.

Rather than Primary I'd use Main Password.
Comment 7 Tex2002ans 2026-03-10 20:42:04 UTC
Strong −1.

I'd vote −∞ (negative infinity) if I could.

- - -

See:

"The New Newspeak" by Heather Heying (December 20, 2022)
- https://naturalselections.substack.com/p/the-new-newspeak

and the related discussions:

- Darkhorse Podcast #157: "On Beyond Antibodies" (January 2023)
--- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwEMPgGRQLA&t=6369
--- Beginning at 1:40:30, ending towards 01:58:00.
- Darkhorse Podcast #154: "Stanford Prism Experiment" (December 2022)
--- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VonT880heFY&t=6111
--- Beginning at 13:25, ending towards 01:04:00.

which go over even more of these so-called "offensive" or "bad words" or terms.

- - -

Here was the raw PDF discussed by the above article:

- A backup of Stanford's "Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative" (2022)
--- https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/stanfordlanguage.pdf

That and its similar ilk has been making the rounds for years, where "offensive" technical words like:

- whitespace
- submit
- abort
- tarball

or:

- graybeard
--- There's plenty of those here!
- guru
--- And these!!
- grandfather
--- And these!!!

or common words like:

- addicted
- fieldwork
- freshman
- insane
- mailman
- mankind
- manpower
- seminal

are all magically considered "offensive", and "must be replaced".

This is complete nonsense.
Comment 8 jan d 2026-03-17 13:31:52 UTC
I think it makes sense to replace it with main or primary. I do not see strong risks for usability. (I also think that "master document" etc. could be changed, but one issue at the same time)
Comment 9 Eyal Rozenberg 2026-03-17 16:54:30 UTC
(In reply to lol from comment #0)

Comments here suggest this should really not be marked NEW. Who confirmed this? Returning to UNCONFIRMED status.

I am also strongly against this change.

Just a reminder: A "master password" is supposed to remind us of a "master key":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_keying

while it is not exactly the same thing (the master key _itself_ can open many locks; the master password allows this only indirectly by unlocking access to other passwords) - it is meaningful, useful and helpful to maintain the existing term.
Comment 10 Mihai Vasiliu 2026-03-17 17:39:34 UTC
Not only the word "master" is familiar to long time users in many cases, but it does not have to be offensive, as it does not imply the existence of a "slave".

I also use the term "master record" in audio engineering, all the other records being the copies (see also: mastering). So I would vote against changing something that might create a precedent.

"Main" or "primary" are just partial synonyms in this case, with the same idea being of a "master key", as Eyal explained.
Comment 11 Heiko Tietze 2026-03-26 07:36:46 UTC
We discussed the topic in the design meeting. And the majority rejects the idea to rename Master.