On Linux MAINTAINERS file removal of Russian developers
laforge.gnumonks.org
I sincerely regret to see Linux kernel patches like this one removing Russian developers from the MAINTAINERS file. To me, it is a sign or maybe even a symbol of how far the Linux kernel developer co

TLDR;

It literally hurts me personally to see this happening. It’s like a kick in the gut. I used to be proud about having had an involvement with the Linux kernel community in a previous life. This doesn’t feel like the community I remember being part of.

  • @[email protected]English
    4•5 hours ago

    Most of these developers do work for companies that are paying them to make contributions so, it stands to reason that the kernel additions or changes are of particular use to those companies. Nothing is stopping them from continuing to make changes on their own fork for their own benefit, but that means drifting away from the mainline kernel. That adds extra work and overhead, which is the point.

    I’ve seen nothing to suggest this has been identified as a concern, but modern warfare systems do often run on Linux. Some of these developers might already be contributing directly to the war. Also, economics are just as much a part of warfare as bullets and bombs. In this case particularly, economic factors are almost certainly going to be critical to ending the conflict.

    • @emax_gomax
      1•4 hours ago

      I still maintain this is a pretty weak argument. And it does nothing to address the question of what do these devs contribute to instead because it’s not likely their suddenly gonna become jobless and dependent on the state. These are highly skilled and motivated developers just based on what ive heard about getting contributions into the mainline kernel. I just hope they don’t get recruited to write drone targetting systems because we’ve decided to ban them from contributing to a project everyone benefits from.

      • @[email protected]English
        0•2 hours ago

        I’m not going to take that hill because the generals haven’t proven to me that it’s necessary to win the war.

        This isn’t an isolated thing. It’s a small part of the biggest sanctions effort in history. Every single sanction, can be nit-picked in just the same way. There is very little in the way of technology that can’t be dual purposed into warfare, and those that can’t be are still relevant to the economic pressures being applied.

        I have no idea why you are so sure that the development in question isn’t already connected to military drones, but it’s a really weird assumption. What exactly do you think is the number one priority for Russia right now in the area of technical development? What operating system do you think powers most drones, military or otherwise?

        • davel [he/him]English
          1•26 minutes ago

          I can no longer sit back and allow Russian infiltration, Russian indoctrination, Russian subversion, and the international Russian conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

        • @emax_gomax
          2•1 hour ago

          This is absurd. Are you being serious? I’m aware how sanctions are setup in the US because I’m compelled to complete hr training on them every 8 months even though I have no interaction with anyone that would overlap with sanctions requirements. That doesn’t make it any less absurd. It’s also not on me to somehow categorically disprove the link between Linux contributions and military work, the onus there is and as it always should be is on the entity demanding you do something in response to it. But OK, let’s say all the work on Linux coming from anyone who happens to live in or have a Russian nationality somehow goes back to the war effort. Ban work on Russian firmware or Linux compatibility with Russian hardware. Don’t ban Russian people unilaterally and with force using flimsy hypothetical justifications and reductive arguments. I go back to ww1 and the role of scientists in war. They should abstain. Developers should abstains. We don’t belong to the countries we live in, our work should exist for all mankind and to the betterment of society as a whole. If the US wants a trade embargo, or a corporate berlin wall I’m all for it. This is not that.

          Edit: Also, not really relevent, but I would be absolutely amazed if the Russian government is somehow on the bleeding edge of linux development and actively deploying head branch builds of linux with the latest available firmware. Most of the US government still runs on windows out of sheer apathy. If they are using these contributions in drones their almost certainly backporting to a stable linux release and that means this kinda ban if it follows you’re reason isn’t going to have an impact until a few releases down the line and that’s easily bypassable by just not upgrading linux. Russian already presumably sanctioned to older hardware (excluding self manufactured) so that isn’t even a hard choice.