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Linux

Linus Torvalds Comments On The Russian Linux Maintainers Being Delisted (phoronix.com) 40

Posted by BeauHD from the compliance-requirements dept.
Ancient Slashdot reader szo shares a report from Phoronix: Quietly merged into this week's Linux 6.12-rc4 kernel was a patch that removes a number of kernel maintainers from being noted in the official MAINTAINERS file that recognizes all of the driver and subsystem maintainers. [...] [Greg Kroah-Hartman who authored the patch] simply commented in there: "Remove some entries due to various compliance requirements. They can come back in the future if sufficient documentation is provided." [...] The commonality of all these maintainers being dropped? They appear to all be Russian or associated with Russia. Most of them with .ru email addresses. Linux creator Linus Torvalds has since commented on the situation: 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 the actual innocent bystanders who aren't troll farm accounts - the "various compliance requirements" are not just a US thing.

If you haven't heard of Russian sanctions yet, you should try to read the news some day. And by "news," I don't mean Russian state-sponsored spam. As to sending me a revert patch - please use whatever mush you call brains. I'm Finnish. Did you think I'd be *supporting* Russian aggression? Apparently it's not just lack of real news, it's lack of history knowledge too.

Linus Torvalds Comments On The Russian Linux Maintainers Being Delisted More | Reply

Linus Torvalds Comments On The Russian Linux Maintainers Being Delisted

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  • This isn't just for the protection of the world but it's also to protect the maintainers from government "influence" as well. I know that not all Russians support their government's actions so potentially putting them in the position of becoming pawn for said government is unethical. However, if they do support their government's actions then they may be tempted to to be a willing agent for said government. In both cases, it's best to not put them in a potentially compromising position.

  • Laws in question (Score:5, Informative)

    by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Wednesday October 23, 2024 @07:47PM (#64888889) Journal
    Here is what Linus had to say about which country made sanctions:

    I'm not a lawyer, so I'm not going to go into the details that I - and other maintainers - were told by lawyers. I'm also not going to start discussing legal issues with random internet people

    That's it. But he definitely made his opinion clear on the "Russian aggression."

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Linux Torvalds ( 647197 )

      Any able-bodied Russians (of either sex) who aren't actively working to depose or assassinate Putin are basically complicit in everything that's happening, and everything that's about to happen.

      Sorry, but the entire country needs to fuck right off until they are ready to join the civilized world. They have been given chance after chance after chance, and blown them all.

      • Well he should remove all the us maintainers as well. everyone in the middle east to.

      • Any able-bodied Russians (of either sex) who aren't actively working to depose or assassinate Putin are basically complicit in everything that's happening, .

        Says spineless coward living in his moms basement in a nice safe country where he knows he'll never be put in such a position. You're a prick.

      • You're right, but what about Israelis? What about Americans, since America is funding Israel? Because Netanyahu is not interested in civility, and we are funding him knowing that, and IMO also counting on it.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      But he definitely made his opinion clear on the "Russian aggression."

      scare quotes. A way to make clear your position that it's FAKE NEWS, while maintaining deniability.

      • "Russian aggression" is clearly a euphemism, used by Linus. Russia denies it's a war, so you can't call it that, but it's a war.

        A way to make clear your position that it's FAKE NEWS, while maintaining deniability.

        So why did Linus use a euphemism? Does using it make his position clear?

        • It is not a euphemism. The longer expression would be the Russian war of aggression. But simply Russian aggression puts the blame squarely on Russia as the aggressor. The war or the aggression has been going on since 2014.

          • The longer expression would be the Russian war of aggression.

            How do you know that's what Linus was thinking?

      • Let me see if I have my facts straight. According to Russia, they invaded Ukraine because the country had a nazi problem. The same country who elected a jewish president. Or is a police action like Vietnam?

  • We should remove anyone and everyone who is a citizen of a nation actively involved in military activities on foreign soil as recognized by the UN
    • Exactly who would that leave? I think you would run out of bodies pretty quickly.

    • actively involved in military activities on foreign soil as recognized by the UN

      Of course, Russia agrees completely. As a member of the security council, the UN will never recognize them as such.

    • We should remove anyone and everyone who is a citizen of a nation actively involved in military activities on foreign soil as recognized by the UN

      Not sure how cute you're trying to be. Ie, are you include the US and other western (often NATO) aligned nations that conduct military operations at various times. Or are you just trying to implicate Israel.

      If you were just trying to draw a circle around Russia, Israel, and a few smaller nations involved in conflicts, then you left out a fairly important qualifier, ie, "nation actively involved in military activities on foreign soil with the express purpose of conquering their territory".

      Of course, the prob

      • >With Russia it's basically just "oh, we want to be an empire again and so we'll conquer one of our neighbours and just annex and/or puppet all their territory".

        That is correct, except the word "again" even before the adventures into Georgian and Ukraine they were already an empire. Many of the provinces in "russia proper" are places with a subjucated local population ruled by russians.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Erioll ( 229536 )

      Assuming I even agreed, why would the UN be considered a trustworthy body for this? Right now, at this moment on the UN Human Rights Council [wikipedia.org] are China, Cuba, and at least a few other places with "questionable" practices.

      The UN is a dictator's club. Democratic (or even close-ish) countries should separate from it. They have nothing resembling ethics or morals by any standard I would recognize. It's a farce, and while good people work there for some good purposes, it offers a veneer of legitimacy to man

  • What if he had said "no" (Score:3)

    by Windrip ( 303053 ) on Wednesday October 23, 2024 @08:19PM (#64888949) Journal

    How quickly would Linux have been seized?
    Finland historically had an strong economic relationship with Russia. That's all been trashed by NATO expansion. Critical OSS software could do someting against the neo-liberal defense state. History didn't start in Feb-2022. I'm neither pro-Russia or pro-Ukraine. I'm critical of the US Defense world-view and its incarnation as NATO.

  • Anyone disappointed by this should direct their indignation at Putin.

    It is telling that someone else is supposed to be blamed.

  • Seriously, the decision is being based on The Winter War from 85 years ago? If there are fake contributers, remove them. If you are removing real Russian contributors to the kernel *because* they are Russian, where does that end? Please remove Israeli contributors, German contributors, American contributors, Ukrainian contributors, South African contributors, and many others as well.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dskoll ( 99328 )

      The contributors are being removed most likely for the Linux Foundation to comply with US sanctions against Russia. It has nothing to do with the Winter War, except for the parallel between that war and the war against Ukraine: The unprovoked invasion of a neighbur followed by Russian failure to conquer the country and subsequent reduction of Russian war aims.

      Only difference is the unprovoked Russian war against Ukraine is lasting much longer and is much more brutal with far more casualties.

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