Several Linux Kernel Driver Maintainers Removed Due To Their Association To Russia
www.phoronix.com
  • @fireshell@lemmy.mlEnglish
    15•6 months ago

    Linus Torvalds Confirms Decision to Remove Maintainers from Russia

    You couldn’t come up with a more powerful spit in the direction of FOSS. And from Linus, who is now kind of showing f*ck to the entire community. Here you have freedom, openness and all that. Today they just wiped their ass with it, and by one of the founders.

    This is the moment when the split politics, dirty ones from all sides, have penetrated into the very heart of OpenSource - into the Linux kernel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_YozYt8l-g

    • @ChiefSinner@lemm.ee
      3•6 months ago

      Uhh sir Linus, this is a Wendy’s Linux kernel.

      .

      Why force your political beliefs on something that has nothing to do with?

    • @BCsven@lemmy.ca
      2•6 months ago

      Software still has to follow legal rules, like when some distros removed stuff to be ITAR /EAR compliant for shipping across borders

      Nothing is stopping Russia from taking the Open Source kernel and developing it themselves

    • @MrAlternateTape@lemm.ee
      -15•6 months ago

      Unfortunately, Russia would not hesitate a second to use these Russian maintainers to include some shady stuff into Linux. Russia used everything they can to their advantage.

      Now, we can wait for that to happen and have all sorts of issues when some backdoor gets distributed on a massive scale on a lot of Linux systems, or we can be realistic about the situation and take action before that.

      I would not trust anyone from China to work in FOSS either, since they are exactly the same.

      • @fireshell@lemmy.mlEnglish
        12•6 months ago

        by this logic it turns out that the code quality control system is built in such a way that if someone has malicious intent and wants to add malicious code, but is not affiliated with dubious structures, then he will easily succeed? Hey, what about enough eyeballs and shallow bugs?

        • @MrAlternateTape@lemm.ee
          0•6 months ago

          I do agree that quality control should catch things, but we are all human and we don’t catch a 100%. So if quality control is flooded with too much things to catch, the chance of one slipping by increases.

          Also, a lot of FOSS is based on volenteers, do we just ask those people to put in more hours? Who is responsible anyways if something makes it through and actually causes damage to something or someone?

          I find the decision quite reasonable. You at least filter out the party most likely to pull something shady. We should still be very careful, but it takes away some the work.

      • @gnuhaut@lemmy.ml
        5•6 months ago

        Yeah better discriminate based on nationality /s. But why stop at that? Poor people are too easily bribed can’t have them. I hear the CIA recruits from top US universities, can’t trust those college grads either. Anyone belonging to some homophobic church or religious group? Better not what if they’re closeted gay and get blackmailed? Anyone in a monogamous relationship should be excluded for the same reason, if you think about it. *tips forehead*

        • @MrAlternateTape@lemm.ee
          0•6 months ago

          We stop at that point. Because it is very clear and obvious to everybody, that a Russian citizen can be forced to do the governments bidding at any time and Russia has demonstrated that they will do that. The whole country is build on propaganda and fear amongst it’s people.

          The rest of the groups you name, are not the same. Sure, a poor person could be bribed. But is that the same as the 100% chance that Russia will use anything they can to fuck with everybody they see as an enemy? I don’t think so.

          So your arguments are simply invalid in this case. If Russia was a democracy, a real one, I would say they made the wrong decision by pushing the Russians out. But in the current circumstances? I understand the decision.