I love that you can read his soft tone and caring voice even through the text.
He’s not wrong though, and I’m not surprised he gives zero shits about finding a way to make it work or put efforts in looking for exceptions. He doesn’t give a shit about much except hardware, and maybe copying VFS layer functions.
He doesn’t care cuz there’s nothing he can do. Export compliance is no joke and you don’t have the option to say no. Period end of story. This really has nothing to do with Linus at all.
I work in software and we hired a couple contractors in Russia before the full invasion up until recently when they finished the work. We we’re still able to pay them in USD to a Russian bank legally (they had to change a couple times to get unsanctioned banks). There are exceptions, forms to fill, check to do etc… but it’s possible to find exceptions for individuals. We’re just peasants and we managed.
Even if it wasn’t possible in the end, that takes time and effort to figure out. I could imagine a world where Linus would have said: Sorry we gotta delist you but we’ll see if there are people who can make it work in the future. But of course that’s not Linus (I wouldn’t have done it either, I have no interest in politics/law so I get it).
