Linus Torvalds Comments On The Russian Linux Maintainers Being Delisted
www.phoronix.com

Here is Linus’s comment

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.

And about whether or not he is under an NDA

No, but 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 who I seriously suspect are paid actors and/or have been riled up by them

  • BRINGit34@lemmygrad.mlOPEnglish
    6415·
    16 days ago

    I think this is a shortsighted and extremely ill-informed decision.

    The “compliance requirments” have still not been explained at all.

    Why aren’t Americans and israelis being removed from the maintainer list for their active part in a genocide?

    But that is my opinion and is all I will say

    • luciferofastora@lemmy.zip
      383·
      16 days ago

      Probably because there are no sanctions against them that his government is cracking down on? I don’t think he wants to get involved in politics so much as stay out of prison.

  • ma1w4re@lemm.ee
    413·
    16 days ago

    How is being born in Russia makes one complicit in “Russian aggression” wtf? I didn’t have a fucking choice in this matter. Now I’m fucking worried that someone will have a bright idea of blocking Russians from using Linux, I might just kill myself at that point. Honestly, I’d rather die than lose my main and most beloved hobby.

  • gnuhaut@lemmy.ml
    276·
    16 days ago

    I guess the lawyers are working for the Linux Foundation? Linux development does not need and started without a legal structure. They could tell the lawyers and the Linux Foundation to get lost. Is the US government going to prosecute individuals for collaborating with individuals from Russia on free software projects? If that’s so, maybe wait till that actually happens and see what the courts have to say about that, instead of this anticipatory obedience.

    And the rest is some rhetoric parlor trick and/or racist brainworms. How is not banning Russian individuals from kernel development “supporting Russian aggression”? And apparently there is no way anybody would argue against that without being a Russian paid actor or a propaganda victim. I’ve been watching these so-called “real news” and they love carrying water for genocide right now. Their terrible propaganda – our “real news”.

    • eldavi@lemmy.ml
      8·
      16 days ago

      And the rest is some rhetoric parlor trick and/or racist brainworms. How is not banning Russian individuals from kernel development “supporting Russian aggression”? And apparently there is no way anybody would argue against that without being a Russian paid actor or a propaganda victim. I’ve been watching these so-called “real news” and they love carrying water for genocide right now. Their terrible propaganda – our “real news”.

      my maga loving relatives say the same thing torvalds said in his comments and now i’m realizing that the saying “don’t meet your heros” also applies to their comments; im switching to bsd

  • vfreire85@lemmy.ml
    211·
    16 days ago

    the point that really got me was “I’m Finnish. Did you think I’d be supporting Russian aggression?”.

    in the end, it’s nato-stan all day long. tired of this.

  • fireshell@lemmy.mlEnglish
    2510·
    16 days ago

    Linus set a very bad precedent without causing any real damage. Clearly he was “asked” to do it, but then he did it himself.

    One day, Linus might become a traitor - a traitor to the people who followed him. And a traitor to the cause he served all these years. You were the chosen one! You were supposed to fight evil, not join it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_YozYt8l-g

      • gomp@lemmy.ml
        46·
        16 days ago

        Finland was invaded by Russia before WWII, then participated in a campaign against Russia with the Axis powers and finally signed the Moscow Treaty with Russia and the UK and joined them against Germany… I fear history is more complex than what may serve your simplistic view (I’d go to far as to say that, most probably, reality is too).

        Also, if I may, that happened some 80 years ago… do you think current Finns should be ashamed of that when they were not even alive back then? Can you name a nation that didn’t do anything shameful in the last century?

  • plinky [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    111·
    16 days ago

    So guess russians will have to maintain their own fork of the kernel, and do their stuff on it? 🤷 as I’ve understood, they are (mainly or wholly) driver maintainers for some russian hardware

    • JustMarkov@lemmy.mlEnglish
      81·
      15 days ago

      Probably. The Baikal project is interesting enough to me in terms of its architecture and it’s frustrating to see the maintainers of its drivers being delisted simply because of their nationality.

    • boonhet@lemm.ee
      611·
      16 days ago

      Brave of you to say it on ml where a lot of people support Putin’s goal of restoring the empire.