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Several Russian developers lose kernel maintainership status

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231–240 of 314 posts

Re: Several Russian developers lose kernel maintainership status

#231
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a geopolitical drama or melodrama, Linux Foundation needs to follow the laws of US where it's located. It's the same as any other American company

Linux Foundation was never supposed to stifle collaboration in the kernel. They are supposed to be a way to support Linux in a tax-advantaged way, full stop. EFF should start a fork if any part of them still stands for what's in their name.

The EFF is also a US organization subject to the whims of the US government.

Re: Several Russian developers lose kernel maintainership status

#232
post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

History is full of violent revolutions against autocratic governments. We should inflict maximum pain on the Russian populace. Be as cruel as possible. Keep the pressure on. Eventually it might pay off. And even if it doesn't work, it serves as an object lesson to other countries on the consequences of opposing US policies.

So, what you want is essentially pushing a whole country's population around for your own amusement? Very motivating, not gonna lie!

Like it or not, the leader derives his power from the populace. An autocrat is powerless without people going along.

Re: Several Russian developers lose kernel maintainership status

#233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that is truly the case: either people in Russia are unable to construct logical chains and understand why certain things are happening (and in that case one should seriously question their ability to contribute meaningful code). OR, they do understand the reasons but choose to support their leader's actions (in which case them having privileges in the project is a major security risk). Which one is it?

People in Russia weren't born three years ago and can remember things. When the US illegally invaded and devastated Iraq in 2003 under the fake pretense of WMD weapons, no sanctions against the US from the other Western countries followed. And of course the US didn't sanction itself and the American people reelected the president who started that war instead of surrendering him to the International Criminal Court. So…

And people in Russia's neighboring countries also remember maany things.

Re: Several Russian developers lose kernel maintainership status

#234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That freedom means giving enemies unfettered access to our most sensitive systems? Do you imply that Linux is a technology controlled by Western state actors? > I would like to remind you of the recent XZ utils backdoor into SSH contributed by a less than friendly nation state. Would you support a backdoor contributed by a friendly nation state?

I didn't say "western"! Whether we like to acknowledge it or not, the world has been split in two: Russia, China, Iran, North Korea... and everybody else. I can deploy an Azure or AWS cloud server right now in any one of several dozen nations, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Chile, Qatar, Israel, and Mexico. I can't deploy VMs in Russia, China, Iran, or North Korea. Not just because of sanctions, but because they don'…

> Whether we like to acknowledge it or not, the world has been split in two: Russia, China, Iran, North Korea... and everybody else.

Maybe you should ask the rest of the world before making such a statement.

Re: Several Russian developers lose kernel maintainership status

#235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People in Russia weren't born three years ago and can remember things. When the US illegally invaded and devastated Iraq in 2003 under the fake pretense of WMD weapons, no sanctions against the US from the other Western countries followed. And of course the US didn't sanction itself and the American people reelected the president who started that war instead of surrendering him to the International Criminal Court. So…

And people in Russia's neighboring countries also remember maany things.

[deleted]

Re: Several Russian developers lose kernel maintainership status

#236

Apparently (quelle surprise) Linus is getting swarmed by Russian trolls like a US swing-state voter. From https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linus-Torvalds-Russian-Devs Ok, lots of Russian trolls out and about. It's entirely clear why the change was done, it's not getting reverted, and using multiple random anonymous accounts to try to "grass root" it by Russian troll factories isn't going to change anything. And FYI for…

That's fine, but we would like to see the orders he received and the evidence. This patch is outrageous because of the lack of transparency, not the patch itself if there's a good reason for it. Linus and Greg appear to be not only not posting a reason, but trying to keep the reason secret.

Re: Several Russian developers lose kernel maintainership status

#237
post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, what do you propose? We're obviously far past the point of diplomacy. The sanctions are not designed to change hearts and minds. They're designed to make Russia's war efforts more difficult. The sorry state of affairs is that Russia's government has made itself a huge problem and there are no good solutions.

I doubt this particular move will complicate Russia's war efforts in any appreciable way. There is no non-fanciful way in which the named, well-established and closely watched kernel maintainers could have leveraged their status for it, and the tech scene has been one of the remaining bastions of pro-Western sentiment in Russian society. How many young programmers will be disenchanted with the West after hearing of t…

Well, this comment (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41932923) seems to indicate that Russian military industrial companies seem to get some use out of contributing to the kernel. As to your question, I cannot answer it to any degree of accuracy and I believe you cannot either.

Re: Several Russian developers lose kernel maintainership status

#238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is the letter of the law, yes. I would suggest though that the spirit / intent behind the law includes fostering a community, which in turn encourages open and clear communication.

> spirit / intent behind the law What specific law are you talking about?

the GPL

Re: Several Russian developers lose kernel maintainership status

#240

Apparently (quelle surprise) Linus is getting swarmed by Russian trolls like a US swing-state voter. From https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linus-Torvalds-Russian-Devs Ok, lots of Russian trolls out and about. It's entirely clear why the change was done, it's not getting reverted, and using multiple random anonymous accounts to try to "grass root" it by Russian troll factories isn't going to change anything. And FYI for…

That's fine, but we would like to see the orders he received and the evidence. This patch is outrageous because of the lack of transparency, not the patch itself if there's a good reason for it. Linus and Greg appear to be not only not posting a reason, but trying to keep the reason secret.

It's pretty obvious that it's due to sanctions, but they don't want to say it.
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