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Phoronix: Linus Torvalds Comments On The Russian Linux Maintainers Being Delisted
(www.phoronix.com)
Huh. Lot of people Russian' to conclusions in this thread.
Sorry.
this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2024
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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The comments under the article are a special kind of braindead.
Always is with Phoronix comments.
You find everything there from "Gnome is satanist" all the way up to pro-genocide crap.
I really don't know what it is about the site that brings out the craziest souch.
For half a second there, I was like "yeah, so glad Lemmy is more rational than that site".
Few comments later, folks be talking about "Ukranian Nazis"...
Hoo boy, you weren't kidding. I find it amazing how quickly this went from "the kernel team is enforcing sanctions" to an an unfriendly abstract debate about the definition of liberalism. I shouldn't, really, but I still am.
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Yeah. Why is everyone saying this is removing their contribution credits? It's just a list of active maintainers...
This is not an unusual comment section on Phoronix, to put it mildly.
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Banning Israeli contributers too?
No, it's not like Israel is attacking its neighbors. It doesn't, does it?
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As a finn, I understand that there are probably legal reasons for doing this.
I just wish they would be transparent and share those reasons with us. The Linux kernel is certainly not the only free software project that is impacted, if this comes straight from EU/US sanctions. Maintainers of other projects have a lot of interest in what is happening.
Transparency is also important because if EU/US policy/sanctions are causing issues for free software projects, then that discussion needs to be public, so that there is a chance to amend the policies if necessary.
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Linus has never been the best communicator, but he usually speaks the truth. But this is just bonkers and wrong. Not everyone living in Russia has "ties with Russia" other than "they were born there". If this is about sanctions, he could have still just told them that. But instead he just disrespected contributors completely and then double down in it by being xenophobic.
It's really disappointing seeing Russian contributors being disrespected like this, the regime that rules Russia wasn't entirely their fault, and allegiance, nationality, and ethnicity are all clearly different things
Also, wouldn't a state sponsored Russian hacker pretend to be from the US or something anyway? No way they'd contribute code as a Russian, that'd just increase others' suspicion
I agree with Linus a lot too but I strongly disagree here. I hope he's just being made to say this because of government policies
And the most dangerous part here is the whole rethoric of "if you disagree, you are a Russian shill".
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I don't understand how sanctions can impact free software, tbh, what's free about this? This leaves a weird taste, I have to admit.
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so are we okay with banning development time donated to foss because of nationality?
are these people found to support heinous shit or is this just wartime shenanigans?
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Free as in... obeys US foreign policy
I'm pretty sure not just the US wants Russia sanctioned to the oblivion. All of the Europe that borders Russia wants that. Now why would it be like that?
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We're gonna start seeing large open source communities start to break into smaller ones because of sanctions from now aren't we?
You don't need sanctions. I've seen you petty fucks fork projects over a font.
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Some old folk are reminded of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export_of_cryptography_from_the_United_States
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Everyone who disagrees with me is a paid russian troll of course. Nobody would oppose blacklisting people based on nothing but their nationality unless they were getting paid for it.
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Man, I wish he'd leave the communication to someone else. He is so, so bad at it. And this isn't the first time
The way he attacks critics puts himself in a bad light. But much more importantly, I read this and am still unsure if he has administrative/legal reason, security reasons or political reasons...
If I'd work in Russian propaganda, I'd love this so much. Hope this will not cause disruption in the community.
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Is there a specific reason for this?
Yes, the sanctions against Russia, as mentioned by Linus. The change also said the maintainers "can come back in the future if sufficient documentation is provided".
My guess is that the Linux Foundation must ensure that none of the people they work with are in any way associated with any organisation, person or activity on the sanctions list. And that they preemptively removed all maintainers that might risk violating the sanctions while they work with them to establish whether they might be covered by the sanctions or not.
Regardless of what you or they think of the sanctions, they are the law, and I don't think anyone wants the Linux Foundation to have to spend their money on lawyers and fines because they had a maintainer who also worked on a research project funded by a sanctioned entity. (If that is how it works, IANAL)
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Compliance with sanctions from the US and EU IIRC
Sanctions apply on OS development?
I dont know ennough on the topic, does this ecen check out?
Yes they do. See the long-standing debate over the ban to export crypto algorithms to Iran.
As they said in the article, they are just listening to their lawyers. I would assume those lawyers are correct.
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Finland is experiencing suspicious acts of sabotage and disruption and believes Russia is engaged in broad-ranging influence operations against it and other European countries
Since Linus is Finnish, this literally hits home for him, hence (probably) his reaction.
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I'd really like to see the criteria for delisting people, though. As Russia is not the only one waging wars, there are worse countries out there. I guess it all boils down to Linus being from Finland.
Yeah the kernel might end up being forked if this shit keeps going. Sanctions affecting open source software like this was not something I expected...
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Shame to see this shit from torvalds
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