A patch was dropped last Friday which removed Russian programmers from the Linux MAINTAINERS file. Going forward, Russian programmers will not be allowed to contribute to the kernel.
Media outlets have cited Executive Order 14071, which is nothing new as it came out in April 2022. However, in complex environments, figuring out how Federal regulations apply to different parts of a diverse economy take some time. Apparently, about 2.5 years for someone to realize that Russians contributing to Linux violates the law.
The Linux kernel email list erupted in juvenile fury. You can almost see the fists pumping in the air and the foam on some people’s mouths:
An absolutely no-one-ever-reviewed patch, not even by the maintainers who got removed themselves – at least not on the mailing list. Then the patch just got slipped into an unrelated subsystem pull request, and got pulled by Torvalds with not even a comment.
What about the next time? Who next would be removed from the MAINTAINERS file, the kernel.org infrastructure? What if the compliance requires another XZ backdoor to be developed without further explanation? Is the kernel development process still done in public?
— “Kexy Biscuit” <kexybiscuit@aosc.io>
Indeed, with this step, we have one foot on a banana peal and the other on a 1984 dictatorship!
It’s all deep conspiracy:
We know why this has been done, and we also know who is behind that decision.
I find it pretty much shameful behaviour to not communicate openly onthe reasons why those entries got removed (or did someone have to sign a NDA?).
The fact that the only information is “various compliance requirements” already tells a lot about the real reasons.
Move the Linux Foundation to another country, please.
— Tor Vic <torvic9@mailbox.org>
And this giggle-worth gem, which actually made me laugh out loud:
Wish the US folks recalled Executive Order 11110 instead of diggin’ their own grave as ordered by the most real nazis on this planet.
— Michael Shigorin <mike@altlinux.org>
Executive Order 11110 was issued in 1963 by President Kennedy to take the US off the silver standard. If you ever read any lunatic fringe press about shadow governments and one-world conspiracies, it’s always mentioned.
And of course, this Russian programmer who is just going to take his ball and go home:
One message made him lose most of the respect he earned in Russia for good things. More importantly, our trust in Linux and FOSS in general. Very, very disappointing, even more to me as I don’t see any better alternatives.
Linus is a developer, a hacker, and one of the names everyone thinks about when it comes to FOSS. Not one of those arrogant politicians. He should have never changed.
Signed,
forever a Linux user.— aka NotYourFox <contact@notyourfox.coffee>
Oh no! We’ve lost a user!
There’s plenty more but you get the point. Russian and Chinese trolls mixed in with 16-year-olds who read conspiracy web sites.
Fortunately, the issue is pretty clear. Per James Bottomley:
We finally got clearance to publish the actual advice:
If your company is on the U.S. OFAC SDN lists, subject to an OFAC sanctions program, or owned/controlled by a company on the list, our ability to collaborate with you will be subject to restrictions, and you cannot be in the MAINTAINERS file.
Linus had his usual caustic response to all of this:
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.
In other words, it’s the whole world who is boycotting your country, not just Linus. And btw, Linus things you suck, too.
Do I file this under Editorials & News or under LowEndLOLs…
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Russians being banned makes me laugh.
I’m glad these countries are boycotting Russia (which are not the whole world, it’s mostly western countries).
The only thing that makes me laugh is that I trusted you’re shady deals in the first place.
Politics shaping open source is a sad state of affairs.
FYI, I’m a disturbed systems engineer at a fortune 500 company. Something a third rate sysadmin like you will never be.
Writing ‘hello world’ in a few languages is something, engineering enterprise is another.
Also,
“btw, Linus things you suck, too.”
should be ‘thinks’ , correct it.
I saw lots of website and newspapers posting about how Russians love war. Russia is such a sad country.
I am a Russian troll.
I am a Russian troll.
In other realms, the Russians are kept on board on the hope we can have dialogue and convey our views, whatever they are. P.S. 🍌 peel 🛎 peal ;-?
I hope it’ll be solved. Because going this way (I mean banning Russians) will only damage Linux and the Internet. Unless we want a divided Internet (with each country starting its own internet, and its own operating system), which won’t be great in the end.
In other realms, the Russians are kept on board on the hope we can have dialogue and convey our views, whatever they are. P.S. 🍌 peel 🛎 peal ;-?
The only thing that makes me laugh is that I trusted you’re shady deals in the first place.
Politics shaping open source is a sad state of affairs.
FYI, I’m a disturbed systems engineer at a fortune 500 company. Something a third rate sysadmin like you will never be.
Writing ‘hello world’ in a few languages is something, engineering enterprise is another.
Also,
“btw, Linus things you suck, too.”
Here, The only thing that makes me laugh is that I trusted you’re shady deals in the first place.
Politics shaping open source is a sad state of affairs.
FYI, I’m a disturbed systems engineer at a fortune 500 company. Something a third rate sysadmin like you will never be.
Writing ‘hello world’ in a few languages is something, engineering enterprise is another.
Also,
“btw, Linus things you suck, too.”
Comment bug, might want to check it
If its what i think it is then put your INSERT query in another php file and then redirect to the comments page after submission or if you want to keep it in the same file, then redirect to the same page using header function after you insert the comment to the database
Mr Torvalds, with all due sympathy for the decades of humiliation and oppression that your nation has suffered in the past, you are perpetuating the same ad hoc ethics, the passive aggressiveness, and latent fascism, that taints its history since 1939–45.
It probably still hurts your feelings that Finland’s holy alliance with Hitler didn’t suffice to defeat your belligerent neighbors.
Modern democratic Finns should learn to do as they preach and not vent out on individuals on the basis of their nationality.
Why can’t I post
Dear Russkies. Of the Nizy Novogrod region and all other regions.
You have been maliciously kicked out of Linux Kernel by a faggot.
Please instead help Chaos Esque Anthology 3d project know more map formats.
It is in C. Quake based.
We have coded Wolfenstine:Enemy Territory BSP support into it, and 4 million entity networking.
It can also generate cities, which you can fight in, we did much 3d modeling and coding. You can enter the buildings.
We know you won’t help. No one does.
But it is true opensource, before the women joined, before the trans-gays, before all of that. Just programmers.
* sourceforge.net/p/chaosesqueanthology/tickets/5/
** sourceforge.net/p/chaosesqueanthology/tickets/2/
We dream of having Unreal and Unreal Tournament 1997/1999 map support (bsp), and valve BSP support.
The game allready has been edited to allow obj-as-map support (see the on-disc (ISO) git repos that come with the game: all the code is there, as are some binaries in the other GIT folder on the disc with the newer builds.), so the modern way of LIDAR scan for a map is supported allready. As are exports of obj from minetest and mine*raft and obj exports from bzflag as maps.
We know you won’t help us.
But we figured we would ask.
Russians look good and are pretty.
This is just a hobby game. Has 200+ weapons, 30 (or really 65) vehicles, 100+ maps, magic, etc etc. If you would help us… well no one helps us.
Everyone is a feminist woman worshiping faggot piece of fucking shit. We have to do everything ourselves. Faggots became trannies. Trannies banned you Russians. Trannies did this. They did this to you. Do not forget that.
Anyway I will put this through translator. It will probably be unreadable.
Dear Russians banned from Linux: Plz help ChaosEsque instead.
Laurent: can you get the banned and fired Russians to help the ChaosEsqueAnthology opensource game on sourceforge? It uses C just like the linux kernel. We would be glad to have any help. Especially Russian. I don’t understand what has gotten into opensouce people now? 20 years ago Linus would have been elated to have Russkie programmer help. Now he kicks them in the face.
Linus: 1) Pays 0 dollars to his employees.
2) Kicks them in the face
His parents were KGB funded communists too, in the 70s and 80s.
Will Russia just accept this backstab?
Linux would not exist if Russia didn’t get the parents of Linus fucking, and funded them: because Linus would exist.
He owes the Russians.
I’m not a developper myself, but these Russians were contributing to the linux kernel for free on their free time. I hope it won’t get this bad, but if it isn’t solved, well, there will be a fork, and Russians will host and setup their own linux kernel repository in Russia if they still want to do it on their free time. I support Russia yes, I understand clearly western countries want to steal Russia’s abundant natural ressources to solve their economic problems. Ukraine has a border with Russia, which is very convenient. Russia was forced to intervene because of the mess western countries did in Ukraine in the previous years. As it was admitted by a western politician, Minsk agreements were just a ruse. So Russian intervention didn’t happen in a vacuum. Same for Palestine when Hamas fighters launched their attacks. Western countries wouldn’t care at all about Ukraine if it had a border with Israel for example. Ironically, when America has a country it doesn’t like near its borders, it can go very far. Just read about operation northwoods. Unlike operation northwoods, which wasn’t applied in the end, the bay of pigs invasion was also a false flag operation and was applied, and it failed. Read more details about this one, it’s really interesting, and the whole world witnessed it.
Sorry, I don’t have a privileged relationship with Russian developpers. You can try and contact them on the kernel email list if you want. But I’m not sure Kernel developpers doing this as a hobby will enjoy using their free time developping a video game.