Linus Torvalds Comments On The Russian Linux Maintainers Being Delisted

[patrakov]

It is more likely about compliance with sanctions than espionage.

But deleting names of contributers is strange so who knows for sure.

This has already been answered very well in the mailing list:

I am not a lawyer, but my understanding is that sanctions means you can
not buy things from them, sell things to them, or otherwise exchange
money. It does NOT mean you are forbidden from emailing them or
mentioning their email address.

[jhhall]

In all the years of reading Phoronix, this is the first time I felt motivated to register to make a comment, hence the new account. I started working with and on Unix in 1977, and later, Linux.

My thought is that the reason for the change is to prevent Linux from becoming a sanctioned product, and preventing Linux maintainers from being personally sanctioned. If Linux was sanctioned, it would be disastrous for everyone in the US and EU and other countries with similar sanctions, who would lose the ability to use Linux or be subject to secondary sanctions. It can't be export control because that would not prevent contributions, it would prevent exporting of Linux.

Another possibility is that the rules which caused all US SaaS companies to exit Russia could be stretched to consider accepting a patch from a Russian as a service to Russian entities. This would cause the companies providing those services to be subject to penalties for breaking sanctions. While this is an older sanction, it only became effective sometime this summer.

I wonder what other FOSS providers may need to adopt similar policies, and their willingness to do so.

[akuhtr]

Didn't they just re-elect Putin? I assume that the average person is just fine with the current conditions. I know some Russians have gone to Cyprus or Qatar not sure if software developers count as oligaoligarchs.

You trust russian elections? Are you sure that you are not russian troll? Because Flying Spaghetti Monster is more real then russian election is trust worthy...

Some can have enough resources, but lot of them does not.

[Quackdoc]

The Linux community seems to be unusually pro Russian and anti Israel. I don't think the troll farms would care about Phoronix and I've been seeing the same thing on some not so large Linux discords as well.

rather then being pro Russia, it's more like anti hypocrisy and anti idiocy, I have zero love for Russia, it's a sad pathetic country, but being able to separate state from it's constituents is important.

[Artak]

Mr. Torvalds embracing his axis heritage !
Meanwhile in Phoronix forums ....

[Quackdoc]

This has already been answered very well in the mailing list:

this depends on the details of the sanctions. You can sanction technological assistance which would fall under this.

[patrakov]

I don't get it... seeing as this is open source, what's the concern? If they're making honest contributions and people are actually checking their code, then great. Otherwise, this is just bigotry.

A history lesson: contributions from people working for Baikal Enterprises have been rejected in the past solely because of that. See https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-...sian-Sanctions

[Volta]

Nope. Hamas started it. If they released the hostages, there would already be a ceasefire.

Nope, israel didn't exist before the WW2. Israel started it all. Furthermore, Israel illegally came into possession of nuclear weapons and there were no serious consequences for doing so. It's one of many examples of double standards. That's why nobody sane will buy such hypocrisy.

[r00tb33r]

I suspect removals of credits is a licence violation anyways.

And that's as far as it should go.

[JakeSays]

What I gather from Linus's comments is that the change was made based on guidance from attorneys, and that the issues are related to international sanctions. My guess is Linus sees this move as protecting the kernel from a raft of potential legal challenges down the road. It is not the "end of open source" or other absurd claims being made.