Probably the best thing that can happen to the kernel... this type of measure generally backfires spectacularly by giving talent the opportunity to thrive, if anything as a way to fight back against injustice and arbitrary decisions, or for sanctioned opposition to invest in resilience by dumping more money in things otherwise not consider a priority. I always thought Argentine music from the 80's and early 90s was legendary, and this stems from a post-Falklands war, self-inflicted sanction against anglo music... regional bands thrived and created gems that even today can be appreciated as masterpieces...
Several Russian developers lose kernel maintainership status
51–60 of 314 posts
Re: Several Russian developers lose kernel maintainership status
#52Strongly opposed to any sort of sanction regime that results in this.
Let me spell it out for you: If Project P in Country A is identified by Country B as a potential target for planting cyber-attack-enabling backdoors, Country B has an incentive to find people to put a backdoor in P. If Country B is a free country with rights and ethics, they will say "Help us put a backdoor in P. We'll pay you very well for services rendered," or try to get someone who already works for Country B int…
While everything you mention is absolutely true, to the credit of the opinion of whimsicalism, any maintainer worldwide could get offered tons of bitcoins to integrate a backdoor / "bug".
True life-changing money, in all absolute sense.
Re: Several Russian developers lose kernel maintainership status
#53Re: Several Russian developers lose kernel maintainership status
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
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Let the Russians banish western developers from working on Russian projects.
It's already the case, if you are living in a country officially listed as "hostile to Russia" (or "enemy") it's very difficult to business there. That's why McDonald's left for example.
Re: Several Russian developers lose kernel maintainership status
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who is the “our” that owns Linux? It is a human project and any human should be able to be maintainer. Liberalism is what makes our society great, not paranoia and securitization.
So they can fork it and roll their own version of Linux. Russia-ux.
Not sure if you are joking or not, but BRICS certainly have enough developers for that effort, especially if it is encouraged and financed by the member states. I would not be surprised if this happens.
Re: Several Russian developers lose kernel maintainership status
#56Is there any new "compliance requirements" (sanctions I suppose?) that made this happen? Or is a delayed change since the sanctions started?
The latest change would be EU sanctions that disallow export of technology from March 2024: https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/05/17/microsoft-blocks-r... But this change here feels like there was pressure from the DoD or White House. A lot of sanctions seems to be introduced and enforced informally.
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Re: Several Russian developers lose kernel maintainership status
#57Strongly opposed to any sort of sanction regime that results in this.
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did banning plastic straws in a few US cities fix climate change and pollution?
>The access Russia currently enjoys is the equivalent of Goebbels being allowed to anonymously publish front-page editorials in the Times
there's absolutely nothing you can do about this to prevent this.
troll farms can afford residential VPNs and can network with the US/EU via neighboring neutral countries or their overseas agents.
>while simultaneously contributing code to Bletchley Park co
there's absolutely nothing you can do about this to prevent this.
how do you know that John Johnson contributing code to some widely-used library is not Ivan Ivanson, a KGB sleeper agent? do you know John Johnson in person? does anyone else in your anonymous, informal, nebulous developer clique know any other contributor personally? are you sure that jkldjsafj, qweqweqwe and all the random anonymous guys with anime girl profile pictures who contribute code to a myriad projects are not Russian plants?
>I would like to remind you of the recent XZ utils backdoor into SSH contributed by a less than friendly nation state.
case in point to the above: no one fucking knows who did it. it could be Russia, it could be China, it could be Israel, it could be NSA/CIA.
Re: Several Russian developers lose kernel maintainership status
#58Strongly opposed to any sort of sanction regime that results in this.
Let me spell it out for you: If Project P in Country A is identified by Country B as a potential target for planting cyber-attack-enabling backdoors, Country B has an incentive to find people to put a backdoor in P. If Country B is a free country with rights and ethics, they will say "Help us put a backdoor in P. We'll pay you very well for services rendered," or try to get someone who already works for Country B int…
Such a blatant BS rationalization... The commit literally talks about "compliance". This is nothing more than an easy alternative to navigating the obscure sanctioning regime. It's like self-censorship, people/companies do this because of the fear that their activity may fall under sanctions, even though it highly likely does not.
If your system relies on people being in "a free country with rights and ethics", then you have a bad system widely open to abuse. After all, who decides which country is "free" and which is not? White house? Should you exclude people from all "non-free" countries?
Re: Several Russian developers lose kernel maintainership status
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let me spell it out for you: If Project P in Country A is identified by Country B as a potential target for planting cyber-attack-enabling backdoors, Country B has an incentive to find people to put a backdoor in P. If Country B is a free country with rights and ethics, they will say "Help us put a backdoor in P. We'll pay you very well for services rendered," or try to get someone who already works for Country B int…
While everything you mention is absolutely true, to the credit of the opinion of whimsicalism, any maintainer worldwide could get offered tons of bitcoins to integrate a backdoor / "bug". True life-changing money, in all absolute sense.
Exactly. And that's how the west / america would approach it. Throw money at it until u get what u want
Re: Several Russian developers lose kernel maintainership status
#60Strongly opposed to any sort of sanction regime that results in this.
Let me spell it out for you: If Project P in Country A is identified by Country B as a potential target for planting cyber-attack-enabling backdoors, Country B has an incentive to find people to put a backdoor in P. If Country B is a free country with rights and ethics, they will say "Help us put a backdoor in P. We'll pay you very well for services rendered," or try to get someone who already works for Country B int…
Cool. Which country owns the Linux kernel?
Not that I disagree with the move 100%, but I don't think it's that clear cut.