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Russia says it might build its own Linux community after removal of several kernel maintainers [therecord.media]:

Russia says it might build its own Linux community after removal of several kernel maintainers

Russia has called Linux’s recent delisting [therecord.media] of several Russian kernel maintainers “an act of discrimination” and pledged to establish an independent development community for the open-source operating system.

“We will strengthen cooperation and establish a dialogue with those countries that are ready to work with us,” Russia’s digital ministry said in a comment [www.rbc.ru] to local media, adding that they plan to build their own “alternative structure."

“It is important to create conditions for cooperation, which can help develop a unique product,” the ministry’s representative added. It is unclear whether the creation of an alternative Linux community has been discussed with other countries and whether it is even possible. Leaders within the Linux project have not publicly commented on the Russian statement.

Russia’s response came after the Linux community blocked  11 Russians from maintaining the Linux kernel — the operating system’s core code — citing “various compliance requirements.” Linux creator Linus Torvalds stated that this decision “is not getting reverted,” adding that as a Finn, he will not “support Russian aggression.”

One of the Linux maintainers later explained that the restrictions would apply to developers whose companies are owned or controlled by entities on the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control list, designated as involved in activities that “threaten the national security, foreign policy, or economy” of the country.

Most of the delisted Russian maintainers were indeed associated with sanctioned Russian companies or organizations controlled or backed by the Russian government.

Russian cyber experts have criticized Linux’s latest decision, saying it will negatively affect trust within Linux’s developer community and the quality of the product.

An expert from the Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky, which has been sanctioned by the U.S., said in an interview [www.rbc.ru] with Russian media RBK that the level of suspicion toward patches from Russian developers may increase, complicating the process of integrating changes into the main version of the software, which is important for maintaining Linux distributions.

“The contribution of Russian developers to the Linux kernel is not that significant, so nothing critical will happen in this regard,” said another Russian expert, Ivan Panchenko, co-founder of a Russian company that develops an open-source database management system.

He added that Russian patches for general software issues will likely continue to be accepted. Many Linux developers work on parts of the operating system that are outside the kernel. However, Panchenko said there may be new, separate versions of the kernel created by Russian developers — so-called forks.

This is not the first time that associations with Russia have caused problems for local developers. Last year, a Russian coder's account was blocked on GitHub, and his repositories were marked as "archived." The affected developer reportedly worked for a Russian tech equipment manufacturer sanctioned by Canada and the U.S.

Get more insights with the Recorded FutureIntelligence Cloud.Learn more. [recordedfuture.com]No previous articleNo new articles

Daryna Antoniuk

is a reporter for Recorded Future News based in Ukraine. She writes about cybersecurity startups, cyberattacks in Eastern Europe and the state of the cyberwar between Ukraine and Russia. She previously was a tech reporter for Forbes Ukraine. Her work has also been published at Sifted, The Kyiv Independent and The Kyiv Post.

Russia says it might build its own Linux community after removal of several kernel maintainers

Russia has called Linux’s recent delisting [therecord.media] of several Russian kernel maintainers “an act of discrimination” and pledged to establish an independent development community for the open-source operating system.

“We will strengthen cooperation and establish a dialogue with those countries that are ready to work with us,” Russia’s digital ministry said in a comment [www.rbc.ru] to local media, adding that they plan to build their own “alternative structure."

“It is important to create conditions for cooperation, which can help develop a unique product,” the ministry’s representative added. It is unclear whether the creation of an alternative Linux community has been discussed with other countries and whether it is even possible. Leaders within the Linux project have not publicly commented on the Russian statement.

Russia’s response came after the Linux community blocked  11 Russians from maintaining the Linux kernel — the operating system’s core code — citing “various compliance requirements.” Linux creator Linus Torvalds stated that this decision “is not getting reverted,” adding that as a Finn, he will not “support Russian aggression.”

One of the Linux maintainers later explained that the restrictions would apply to developers whose companies are owned or controlled by entities on the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control list, designated as involved in activities that “threaten the national security, foreign policy, or economy” of the country.

Most of the delisted Russian maintainers were indeed associated with sanctioned Russian companies or organizations controlled or backed by the Russian government.

Russian cyber experts have criticized Linux’s latest decision, saying it will negatively affect trust within Linux’s developer community and the quality of the product.

An expert from the Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky, which has been sanctioned by the U.S., said in an interview [www.rbc.ru] with Russian media RBK that the level of suspicion toward patches from Russian developers may increase, complicating the process of integrating changes into the main version of the software, which is important for maintaining Linux distributions.

“The contribution of Russian developers to the Linux kernel is not that significant, so nothing critical will happen in this regard,” said another Russian expert, Ivan Panchenko, co-founder of a Russian company that develops an open-source database management system.

He added that Russian patches for general software issues will likely continue to be accepted. Many Linux developers work on parts of the operating system that are outside the kernel. However, Panchenko said there may be new, separate versions of the kernel created by Russian developers — so-called forks.

This is not the first time that associations with Russia have caused problems for local developers. Last year, a Russian coder's account was blocked on GitHub, and his repositories were marked as "archived." The affected developer reportedly worked for a Russian tech equipment manufacturer sanctioned by Canada and the U.S.

Get more insights with the Recorded FutureIntelligence Cloud.Learn more. [recordedfuture.com]No previous articleNo new articles

Daryna Antoniuk

is a reporter for Recorded Future News based in Ukraine. She writes about cybersecurity startups, cyberattacks in Eastern Europe and the state of the cyberwar between Ukraine and Russia. She previously was a tech reporter for Forbes Ukraine. Her work has also been published at Sifted, The Kyiv Independent and The Kyiv Post.

Russia says it might build its own Linux community after removal of several kernel maintainers

Russia has called Linux’s recent delisting [therecord.media] of several Russian kernel maintainers “an act of discrimination” and pledged to establish an independent development community for the open-source operating system.

“We will strengthen cooperation and establish a dialogue with those countries that are ready to work with us,” Russia’s digital ministry said in a comment [www.rbc.ru] to local media, adding that they plan to build their own “alternative structure."

“It is important to create conditions for cooperation, which can help develop a unique product,” the ministry’s representative added. It is unclear whether the creation of an alternative Linux community has been discussed with other countries and whether it is even possible. Leaders within the Linux project have not publicly commented on the Russian statement.

Russia’s response came after the Linux community blocked  11 Russians from maintaining the Linux kernel — the operating system’s core code — citing “various compliance requirements.” Linux creator Linus Torvalds stated that this decision “is not getting reverted,” adding that as a Finn, he will not “support Russian aggression.”

One of the Linux maintainers later explained that the restrictions would apply to developers whose companies are owned or controlled by entities on the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control list, designated as involved in activities that “threaten the national security, foreign policy, or economy” of the country.

Most of the delisted Russian maintainers were indeed associated with sanctioned Russian companies or organizations controlled or backed by the Russian government.

Russian cyber experts have criticized Linux’s latest decision, saying it will negatively affect trust within Linux’s developer community and the quality of the product.

An expert from the Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky, which has been sanctioned by the U.S., said in an interview [www.rbc.ru] with Russian media RBK that the level of suspicion toward patches from Russian developers may increase, complicating the process of integrating changes into the main version of the software, which is important for maintaining Linux distributions.

“The contribution of Russian developers to the Linux kernel is not that significant, so nothing critical will happen in this regard,” said another Russian expert, Ivan Panchenko, co-founder of a Russian company that develops an open-source database management system.

He added that Russian patches for general software issues will likely continue to be accepted. Many Linux developers work on parts of the operating system that are outside the kernel. However, Panchenko said there may be new, separate versions of the kernel created by Russian developers — so-called forks.

This is not the first time that associations with Russia have caused problems for local developers. Last year, a Russian coder's account was blocked on GitHub, and his repositories were marked as "archived." The affected developer reportedly worked for a Russian tech equipment manufacturer sanctioned by Canada and the U.S.

Get more insights with the Recorded FutureIntelligence Cloud.Learn more. [recordedfuture.com]No previous articleNo new articles

Daryna Antoniuk

is a reporter for Recorded Future News based in Ukraine. She writes about cybersecurity startups, cyberattacks in Eastern Europe and the state of the cyberwar between Ukraine and Russia. She previously was a tech reporter for Forbes Ukraine. Her work has also been published at Sifted, The Kyiv Independent and The Kyiv Post.

Russia says it might build its own Linux community after removal of several kernel maintainers

Russia has called Linux’s recent delisting [therecord.media] of several Russian kernel maintainers “an act of discrimination” and pledged to establish an independent development community for the open-source operating system.

“We will strengthen cooperation and establish a dialogue with those countries that are ready to work with us,” Russia’s digital ministry said in a comment [www.rbc.ru] to local media, adding that they plan to build their own “alternative structure."

“It is important to create conditions for cooperation, which can help develop a unique product,” the ministry’s representative added. It is unclear whether the creation of an alternative Linux community has been discussed with other countries and whether it is even possible. Leaders within the Linux project have not publicly commented on the Russian statement.

Russia’s response came after the Linux community blocked  11 Russians from maintaining the Linux kernel — the operating system’s core code — citing “various compliance requirements.” Linux creator Linus Torvalds stated that this decision “is not getting reverted,” adding that as a Finn, he will not “support Russian aggression.”

One of the Linux maintainers later explained that the restrictions would apply to developers whose companies are owned or controlled by entities on the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control list, designated as involved in activities that “threaten the national security, foreign policy, or economy” of the country.

Most of the delisted Russian maintainers were indeed associated with sanctioned Russian companies or organizations controlled or backed by the Russian government.

Russian cyber experts have criticized Linux’s latest decision, saying it will negatively affect trust within Linux’s developer community and the quality of the product.

An expert from the Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky, which has been sanctioned by the U.S., said in an interview [www.rbc.ru] with Russian media RBK that the level of suspicion toward patches from Russian developers may increase, complicating the process of integrating changes into the main version of the software, which is important for maintaining Linux distributions.

“The contribution of Russian developers to the Linux kernel is not that significant, so nothing critical will happen in this regard,” said another Russian expert, Ivan Panchenko, co-founder of a Russian company that develops an open-source database management system.

He added that Russian patches for general software issues will likely continue to be accepted. Many Linux developers work on parts of the operating system that are outside the kernel. However, Panchenko said there may be new, separate versions of the kernel created by Russian developers — so-called forks.

This is not the first time that associations with Russia have caused problems for local developers. Last year, a Russian coder's account was blocked on GitHub, and his repositories were marked as "archived." The affected developer reportedly worked for a Russian tech equipment manufacturer sanctioned by Canada and the U.S.

Get more insights with the Recorded FutureIntelligence Cloud.Learn more. [recordedfuture.com]No previous articleNo new articles

Daryna Antoniuk

is a reporter for Recorded Future News based in Ukraine. She writes about cybersecurity startups, cyberattacks in Eastern Europe and the state of the cyberwar between Ukraine and Russia. She previously was a tech reporter for Forbes Ukraine. Her work has also been published at Sifted, The Kyiv Independent and The Kyiv Post.

No Russians in my Kernel! Geopolitics Reaches Linux Project [itsfoss.com]:

The Linux kernel is one of the biggest open source projects in the entire world. The majority of people consider it as the most influential collaboration with several thousand developers from across the globe.

However, a recent development has raised eyebrows towards the project and its lead maintainer, Linus Torvalds.

So, What Just Happened?

In a patch [kernel.org], Greg Kroah-Hartman (stable kernel maintainer) announced that more than 10 Russian developers have been removed from their roles as a maintainer due to 'various compliance requirements'.

Here's what the patch mentioned:

Remove some entries due to various compliance requirements. They can come back in the future if sufficient documentation is provided.

Considering how short (or vague) the description of the patch is — everyone in the community was caught up in surprise and confusion, and started speculating things.

Until Linus Torvalds commented on the reasoning in the mailing list [kernel.org]. He said:

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.

The Linux Foundation Complies to US Sanctions

After a day passed with the comment by Linus Torvalds, James Bottomley, another Linux kernel maintainer, clarified:

We finally got clearance to publish the actual advice:

If your company is on the U.S. OFAC SDN lists, subject to an OFAC
sanctions program, or owned/controlled by a company on the list, our
ability to collaborate with you will be subject to restrictions, and
you cannot be in the MAINTAINERS file.

So, as per their suggestions from the lawyers and other officials in The Linux Foundation, they removed the Russian maintainers until they can submit documentation that they do not work for a Russian state-sponsored organization (and are just innocent volunteers).

For context, there have been recent US sanctions [treasury.gov] that affect interactions with Russian companies and technology. Even one of the biggest cybersecurity firms, like Kaspersky, was impacted by it, leading for them to exit the country.

But, let's be real: if you are from Russia, it is impossible to convince the US that you are not a part of a state-sponsored entity. If that had been the case, Russian companies could still operate in the US.

Something similar happened with companies like Huawei in the past too.

Linus Torvald's Response Was Not Entirely OK

Linus Torvalds have made interesting comments before [itsfoss.com], and it could be taken as something similar.

However, the response to clarifying the situation did not make it any better, as the community still has mixed responses to the whole ordeal as of now.

To start with, Linus Torvalds mentions that the compliance requirements are not just a US thing. And, I would have strongly agreed to that, if he explained that further instead of other thoughts in the same message.

The problematic part, I believe, is that he went on mentioning "history knowledge", "Russian aggression", and things like "I'm Finnish". 🥲

Well, what does he want to say here?

Does he mean that the compliance requirements are based on historical knowledge? Does this mean that they decided to remove volunteers from which the project benefited for years just because he is Finnish?

Of course, I am not assuming anything here at all. But, seriously, the message could have been put way better.

Linux kernel is a US Thing After All?

Now, the community has several questions in mind, some of them are pointed to Linus Torvalds, and some to the Linux kernel project in general.

• Can someone's political stand make them ineligible to be a Linux maintainer?
• Are we taking historical knowledge of all the countries in the globe to form a compliance requirement?
• If the Linux kernel project is not a US-thing, then why is it about U.S. OFAC SDN lists?
• Does this set a precedent that one of the most impactful open source project could not avoid getting into complex geopolitics bias?

Of course, all these questions are going around the Linux community, with numerous takes to them. Not to forget, you can find plenty of insights on the good-old Hacker News [ycombinator.com] as well.

What would be your answer to them? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

;

See also:

• Linux Says “Goodbye, Russia" [youtube.com]

Original Submission