this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2024
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[–] Allero@lemmy.today 46 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (9 children)

The central project of open-source community closes doors to people based on nationality, and everyone is cheering...

Why? You seriously miss the implications of breaking the very basic principles of open source? You are ready to forgive literally anything if it is claimed to target Russia or Russians in any way?

For those of you who say about backdoors:

  • US is known to create the most complicated spy networks with myriads of backdoors. Where are the bans of the US maintainers?
  • Israel is a literal powerhouse of state-sanctioned spying software - Pegasus, as well as many less renowned programs, was created here. Any bans, anyone?
  • China is known for invasive software. Maybe ban them all too?

The only reasonable way to avoid backdoors is to meticulously check the submitted code. Threat actors can be anywhere - and Russia is not some unique threat location, nor was it banned with that justification - just "compliance requirements".

This is politics permeating the sacred place we all had. This is a giant threat to the community, and the way Linus framed it in his message is even more terrifying. This was never meant to happen.

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 50 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

The only reasonable way to avoid backdoors is to meticulously check the submitted code.

Which is the job of maintainers. Which now aren't Russian, any more. To the best of my knowledge the kernel is still accepting code from Russian citizens, ultimately not having Russians in maintainer roles isn't going to stop the FSB from infiltrating the kernel but it certainly does make it harder.

This also isn't in any way a judgement on the removed people, it's just that it so happens that if you're a Russian citizen you're quite vulnerable to wrench attacks. You could even say that the kernel org is protecting them from being used like that.

[–] FangedWyvern42@lemmy.world 26 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I’m actually shocked by how people are acting about this.

You see, it’s actually a really bad thing to ban devs from an open source project based on nationality over all else. “Oh, but they are state actors!!!” How do you know? Because they are Russian?

[–] InverseParallax@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

OK, this is bs.

They're not banning devs, they're banning maintainers.

Russians can submit as many patches as they like for review, they just can't sign off on their commits themselves.

Seems pretty fair to me.

[–] GeneralInterest@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)
[–] Aqarius@lemmy.world -1 points 1 month ago

I'm actually shocked

I'm not. Ever since the war, every single closet xenophobe of the west has been taking full advantage of finally having an acceptable group of subhumans to hate. If any of this surprises you, you haven't been paying attention.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 24 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

breaking the very basic principles of open source?

No, the basic principles of open source are either the four freedoms (if you agree w/ Stallman) or the OSI open source definition. Here are Stallman's four freedoms:

  • The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).
  • The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
  • The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others (freedom 2).
  • The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

Russians still have these freedoms WRT the Linux kernel. They can still run, study, and redistribute modified versions of the Linux kernel. There's no violation here.

And the OSI definition is similar (and longer, so I won't repeat it here).

No part of the definitions of open source or free software obligate a maintainer to work with anyone else, the only obligations are to the legal freedom of the code. Russians can still use, modify, and redistribute the software, they just aren't allowed to have maintainer positions within the Linux foundation. They can still submit code, and it's up to the maintainers if they choose to look at that code.

That said, I'm sad that it has come to this. I hate the idea of international politics interfering w/ FOSS, but I still maintain that it's 100% fine for Linus Torvalds (and his legal counsel) to make this call. So I agree with the core of your argument, that politics interfering w/ FOSS is bad, but I disagree that it violates any part of the basic concept of FOSS, FOSS maintainers should always be able to decide who they work with, and the rest of the community gets to decide if they're okay with that or if they'd rather follow someone else's fork.

[–] Allero@lemmy.today -1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Fair on your part, I might've gone too far with my argument.

I was talking more about collaborative nature and what happens to it when the major open-surce project decides to gatekeep based on something highly arbitrary.

Linux is long past a simple hobby project, and it should be managed responsibly and with respect to the people that make this all happen.

Sure, the roots of FOSS came from collaboration, with people sharing code between universities and whatnot. But the process has always been "here are my changes, take them if you like." So even the term "collaboration" is a bit of a stretch, since it was almost always a bunch of solo efforts and people would pull in the changes they like. The idea of any kind of structure to FOSS development was added later to help organize it, but the foundation was always someone working on a thing and then advertising those changes for others to pull, if they wanted.

A collaborative project would work something like Python where a core team decides which features to add (i.e. PEPs), and people on the dev team or the community at large would develop those features, and any development that's not part of those approved features tend to be rejected until it goes through the review process.

Linux isn't particularly collaborative in that sense, it's more like the old-school FOSS development process where individual developers would build a thing, use it themselves, and then submit their changes for upstream consideration. I worked on a team where we maintained our own kernel patches separate from upstream for years before trying to submit them upstream, and every time we'd upgrade the kernel, we'd have to reapply the patches, occasionally fixing some things that had changed. The network of maintainers is largely a convenience for working in this more chaotic model, where maintainers are responsible for reviewing and passing along changes for a certain area of the kernel, they don't actually guide development in any meaningful way.

So the main change here is that Russian contributors can still contribute, they just aren't trusted as inner-circle reviewers. It's still collaborative in the same sense that it has always been, there's just a bit more scrutiny over which reviews to trust.

[–] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Torvalds responses make clear he has spent too much time with the wrong people. Calling everyone paid actors is such an embarrassment to his own intelligence. When the linux kernel starts falling behind because of a lack of competent maintainers after banning any country that NATO isnt friends with, we will know that this is where it started and that people cheered.

[–] Allero@lemmy.today 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, arguing that everyone disagreeing is a paid Russian troll is a cherry on top.

[–] YeetPics@mander.xyz 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

So you think Russian trolls wouldn't want to spin this narrative? By virtue of what? Honor?

[–] hitwright@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Open source IP laws operate under the jurisdiction of the citizen's country. What kind of principles do you think open source represents? Because if it's about free movement of information and global collaboration, I'm pretty sure that pirates are the group that better represents those values

[–] Petter1@lemm.ee 0 points 1 month ago
[–] Maiznieks@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Russians can still contribute code, don't bundle those together just to have something to list. You are correct about pegasus, but this is about kernel and rights to commit without review.

[–] Eyck_of_denesle@lemmy.zip 0 points 1 month ago

The comment right above you is fantasising about how America will have to disarm russia and execute the army and install a puppet government. It's not that people don't care about America, it's that they cheer for it's crimes.

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml -3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

in today's political landscape: genocide is acceptable and ignorable; progressives are dirty commies that you should ignore at all costs; and being russian is enough to get you kicked out of contributions to FOSS and all this comes from people who call themselves "liberal".

[–] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

A lemmy.ml user criticising others for supposedly believing genocide is acceptable. Remarkable.

Russia is committing a genocide in Ukraine.

Some sanctioned Russian companies can no longer have maintainers in the kernel. Boo fucking hoo.

And kicked out of all FOSS contributions? Why are you lying? Russians can still contribute.