Hi friends.
I’m seeing a lot of threads about Linus Torvalds on the Linux subreddits I’m subscribed to. Can anyone explain to me what’s going on and if it affects EOS?
The things I’ve read are probably wrong and out of context, but some of the messages I read were “the NSA is inserting spyware into the linux kernel.”
Does anyone know the context of all this? And about Linus Torvalds?
Thanks in advance.
I’m unsure. I did look up this question and I see this question being mentioned in posts from three years ago. I even found an article asking this question from 2001. Do you have any links as to what they were referring to recently or was it just comments people were making?
It seems this is a question that has been mentioned for quite a long time. I’m not aware of it though until you mentioned it so I have no clue if true or not as there are random thing such as Linus was approached among other things but that’s it really, I would have thought it would have been known by now if it was true being open source. The only reason two links are purple in my screenshot is because I clicked on them to see what was going on just now.
Edit: I should say that if anyone really wanted a backdoor it would be done via hardware/firmware rather than the kernel if I were to guess.
Shot in the dark (because you didn’t offer any example, and you should have for clarity), but I’m guessing you’re speaking about the removal of Russian Linux maintainers from the Kernel, which is what has been picked up quite a lot last couple of days on linux-subreddits and linux-news sites.
If that is what you are talking about, then:
TL;DR:
Essentially the Linux Foundation is registered in the US and has to comply with its regulations and sanctions, which is why they were pushed to remove some maintainers in compliance to sanctions that resulted from the imperialistic war of Russia against Ukraine.
Some people weren’t happy about it, and the relevant details communicated about it (or lack thereof).
Longer version: phoronix
As it turns out, free software is not really free. Or rather free, but not for everyone…
I’m upset… It is very unprofessional to delete people who have mail on the ru domain or are Kazakh but have been US citizens for a long time, but with a Russian name.
We condemn the war in Ukraine, it’s wrong, but these sanctions are a clown show that doesn’t work.
You should read the explanation more carefully.
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.
[…]
In your specific case, the problem is your employer is on that list. If there’s been a mistake and your employer isn’t on the list, that’s the documentation Greg is looking for.
So this is all about sanctions being in place for certain companies. The whole industry in the US or EU has to comply with these sanctions.
That individuals, and companies remain subject to the laws of their respective land, seems to be a point that is often overlooked.
I guess where open-source differs to some extent, is assuming the license does not forbid it, code can be forked and developed elsewhere.
Placing frustrations of various sorts on something is a fairly sure way to bring about an alternative version of that thing. I think it’s reasonable to say that from adversity, comes innovation.
I’m sure there’s lots of other interesting examples too.
Example:
Abylay Ospan *@netup.ru
He’s been living in the USA for a long time, a citizen of this country and has been expelled. that’s an example, so I’m correct. His removed 
So this is all about sanctions being in place for certain companies. The whole industry in the US or EU has to comply with these sanctions.
Opensource is not the privilege of one country or union. We make it better together regardless of nationality, name, domain where the mail is. That’s the problem at the moment.
Did you actually bother to read the post of @mbod that you are replying to?
It has nothing to do with his email address, citizenship, or length of time in the 
So, no, you are not correct.
Did you actually bother to read the post of @mbod that you are replying to?
Yes
It has nothing to do with his email address, citizenship, or length of time in the
No, I’m right. Even Abylay Ospan confirmed on Facebook that he was banned for having an email with a .ru domain and had to change it to .com.
This situation is very comical and scary …
I’m assuming you mean this Abylay Ospan:
So he had to clarify the status and company registration of https://www.netup.tv/ in other words.
This topic is very deeply political and Linus made it clear he won’t re-add those individuals/companies. I think the topic has ran its course.
While this is true I think there is a much bigger issue at play here and its about Country’s and who can decide what and who can place what regulations on what. This is very important to all the Opensource community because it depends on an Open World.
This it true. To have legal standing, the Linux Foundation has to be registered in a country. It’s not that long ago that Linux was under legal attack:
It is not the .ru part of the email address. It is the domain @netup.ru that is relevant. And the commit message that removes these maintainers from the MAINTAINERS file explains: “They can come back in the future if sufficient documentation is provided.”
And this is it. If Abylay Ospan can document that he has no relationship to that company, he can be back. And I guess this is what happened.
This statement from Torvalds is not 100 % accurate. The commit message says:
Remove some entries due to various compliance requirements.
They can come back in the future if sufficient documentation
is provided.
The point is, that they need to proof that they are not affiliated with the company referenced in their email address.
can document that he has no relationship to that company
Prove it? No thanks, we’ve forgotten what an open Linux community is. We don’t have to prove or justify anything to anyone.
We have to work together to give people software freedom and make the world a better place. And now, by decree of whom? (because the USA and EU is not the whole world), where is the company registered? (maybe it’s time to move it to neutral country). People should not have to make excuses for something they did not do and are not a threat to the project.
This is a very important moment for the whole Linux community, unfortunately we will see an exodus of people from the core of Opensource and not only… I am very sad about this…
You do not become a Linux kernel maintainer without proof of anything.
I’m sorry, I see this particular case as a molehill not a mountain.
All Linux relevant legal entities are located in the US or the EU: Linux Kernel Organization Inc, github (owned by Microsoft), gitlab inc (google being the biggest share holder), Linux Foundation, etc. It is no surprise that sooner or later these companies need to comply to sanctions imposed by the US and EU.
No its really not and No we wont. Governments do this stuff all the time. This isn’t anything new, this particular case just got vocalized.