linux: Goodbye from a Linux community volunteer
lore.kernel.org

Official statement regarding recent Greg’ commit 6e90b675cf942e from Serge Semin

Hello Linux-kernel community,

I am sure you have already heard the news caused by the recent Greg’ commit 6e90b675cf942e (“MAINTAINERS: Remove some entries due to various compliance requirements.”). As you may have noticed the change concerned some of the Ru-related developers removal from the list of the official kernel maintainers, including me.

The community members rightly noted that the quite short commit log contained very vague terms with no explicit change justification. No matter how hard I tried to get more details about the reason, alas the senior maintainer I was discussing the matter with haven’t given an explanation to what compliance requirements that was. I won’t cite the exact emails text since it was a private messaging, but the key words are “sanctions”, “sorry”, “nothing I can do”, “talk to your (company) lawyer”… I can’t say for all the guys affected by the change, but my work for the community has been purely volunteer for more than a year now (and less than half of it had been payable before that). For that reason I have no any (company) lawyer to talk to, and honestly after the way the patch has been merged in I don’t really want to now. Silently, behind everyone’s back, bypassing the standard patch-review process, with no affected developers/subsystem notified - it’s indeed the worse way to do what has been done. No gratitude, no credits to the developers for all these years of the devoted work for the community. No matter the reason of the situation but haven’t we deserved more than that? Adding to the GREDITS file at least, no?..

I can’t believe the kernel senior maintainers didn’t consider that the patch wouldn’t go unnoticed, and the situation might get out of control with unpredictable results for the community, if not straight away then in the middle or long term perspective. I am sure there have been plenty ways to solve the problem less harmfully, but they decided to take the easiest path. Alas what’s done is done. A bifurcation point slightly initiated a year ago has just been fully implemented. The reason of the situation is obviously in the political ground which in this case surely shatters a basement the community has been built on in the first place. If so then God knows what might be next (who else might be sanctioned…), but the implemented move clearly sends a bad signal to the Linux community new comers, to the already working volunteers and hobbyists like me.

Thus even if it was still possible for me to send patches or perform some reviews, after what has been done my motivation to do that as a volunteer has simply vanished. (I might be doing a commercial upstreaming in future though). But before saying goodbye I’d like to express my gratitude to all the community members I have been lucky to work with during all these years.

    • kitnaht@lemmy.world
      3426·
      12 days ago

      “Russian Sanctions” due to Russia invading a peaceful nation and killing Ukrainians is not a race of people.

      Russia is a country. Not a race.

      • davel [he/him]@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2011·
        12 days ago

        a peaceful nation

        Let’s not go overboard.

      • basmati@lemmus.orgEnglish
        2315·
        12 days ago

        Individual random people are not mentioned in the sanctions and have little to nothing to do with the state, just like the US. The foundation kicking out US maintainers during the Iraq war when the US was indiscriminately killing over a million Iraqi civilians would have been equally ridiculous.

        So no, they don’t and shouldn’t have assumed this is due to sanctions. It’s free software they volunteering to help. There is no profit motive. They are not state actors. And most importantly to you,not all Russians are bad evil whatever slur you want to call them, you racist.

        • kitnaht@lemmy.world
          2023·
          12 days ago

          Linux has a lot of cryptography related to it, so yeah - it’s sanctions related. And these maintainers were all people who were contributing from within Russia or have ties to Russia.

          The Russian troll tactic of calling someone racist to get them to back down from an argument is hilarious so I’m gonna just go ahead and agree with you. I’m racist against war. I’m racist against human suffering. Oh no, I’m such a racist. Oh no whatever will I do?

          Oh that’s right, I’m gonna live my life and be happy about opposing Russian aggression against the Ukrainian people! Slava Ukraini

          • davel [he/him]@lemmy.mlEnglish
            136·
            12 days ago

            The Russian troll tactic of calling someone racist

            Oh, are you an expert on Russian troll tactics? No, you are not. What you are is a conspiracy theorist.

            Frankly I’m losing my patience with this lazy, bullremoved, thought-terminating cliché.

          • basmati@lemmus.orgEnglish
            137·
            12 days ago

            Good for you, these people, like yourself, have nothing to do with the Russian state, assuming so because of their race and nationality is racist.

            Thanks for playing, conservative.

              • untoasted@toast.oooEnglish
                83·
                12 days ago

                Living in a place does not mean you have anything to do with the Russian state, assuming otherwise due to someone’s race is racist.

                • kitnaht@lemmy.world
                  23·
                  11 days ago

                  Russia gets sanctioned. That means all its inhabitants as well. Too bad, so sad.

              • kitnaht@lemmy.world
                31·
                11 days ago

                Wow, good job mods! I linked the proof that he was in Russia and you guys delete it, niiiiiice.

          • 0x4E4F@infosec.pubOPEnglish
            83·
            12 days ago

            I’m racist against war. I’m racist against human suffering. Oh no, I’m such a racist. Oh no whatever will I do?

            It would be nice to also be racist against the Israel/Palestine conflict as well… or any other conflict, wouldn’t you agree?

            • kitnaht@lemmy.world
              32·
              11 days ago

              It’s weird how you somehow managed to single that one thing out, even though my comments already included it. That’s so silly. It’s almost like you have some sort of agenda or something…

              • 0x4E4F@infosec.pubOPEnglish
                42·
                11 days ago

                I may not have noticed all of your comments, I was only quoting from this one, which doesn’t mention anything else but Russia/Ukraine conflict. On the other hand, I mentioned “conflicts in general”.

                And cryptographic data has nothing to do with the sanctions, the sanctions are purely monetary investment related, which also has nothing to do with intellectual investment, but LF decided to include that anyway, just so that they be “good little soldiers” and not get in any legal problems.

      • matcha_addict@lemy.lolEnglish
        95·
        12 days ago

        What definition of race are you going by?

        Oxford dictionary: “a group of people who share the same language, history, culture, etc.”

        Merrian Webster dictionary: "any one of the groups that humans are often divided into based on physical traits regarded as common among people of shared ancestry

        Also: a group of people sharing a common cultural, geographical, linguistic, or religious origin or background"

        Are you really still using debunked race science concepts in 2024?

        Just because you group people based on a different construct does not mean you aren’t racist. What’s next, islamophobia is okay too?

        • 0x4E4F@infosec.pubOPEnglish
          83·
          12 days ago

          What’s next, islamophobia is okay too?

          Of course not.

          But I sure as hell might start asking questions like “yo, where you from” on PRs… because Linus made that OK, so… IDK, I don’t really like US citizens and Israelis, so… oh why the hell not 🤷. /s

        • kitnaht@lemmy.world
          44·
          11 days ago

          Which is great that we’re not talking about groups of people, but national lines on a map, cool how that works right?

          They are under the jurisdiction of the Russian government, that makes them Russian. No matter if they’re from China, Africa, or Tim-buk-tu for all anyone removeding cares. Countries – are – not – people.

          Racism requires you targetting – get this – a group of people based on their shared identity. None of these people have to have whatever identity you’re assuming they have, because they simply have to be…TADA – IN RUSSIA.

          If I hopped over the border into Russia, I’d agree with not being able to access this stuff – Oh now, I’m being racist against myself! But hey, can’t logic someone out of a position that they didn’t logic themselves into in the first place.

          • matcha_addict@lemy.lolEnglish
            11·
            11 days ago

            Which is great that we’re not talking about groups of people, but national lines on a map

            We are actually talking about a group of people - banned from contributing to open source for being Russian. Read the post again before embarrassingly framing your sentences like a smartass.

            • kitnaht@lemmy.world
              1·
              11 days ago

              Not for being Russian. For being IN Russia. Jackass.

              If an African immigrant were there, he’d be banned too – If a chinese guy were there, he’d be banned too - it has nothing to do with race and everything to do with nation and location.

              I linked the mans github, which SAYS he’s in Russia, and mods deleted it.

    • F04118F@feddit.nl
      811·
      12 days ago

      Of course, if you’re living in Russia, it’s dangerous to state anything other than support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

      That doesn’t mean it isn’t cringeworthy to watch someone awkwardly dance around it, trying to ignore it while complaining about (checks notes) losing a bit of reputation over an unnecessary war that their country started and which literally cost thousands of lives.

      Any Russian who stands up against that is incredibly brave. The others, just different levels of sad. Non-Russians who support Putin are the worst.

      I understand why you’d want FOSS to not care abot borders, wars and politics and that is noble. But to call this comment racism, comes across as a veiled show of support for Putin. As if critiquing his invasion is a racist act that hurts the Russian people. Putins invasion is hurting the Russian people. Not this comment.

      • 0x4E4F@infosec.pubOPEnglish
        95·
        12 days ago

        I bet you wouldn’t have the same response if Israeli maintainers are being removed.

            • kitnaht@lemmy.world
              42·
              11 days ago

              Then why are you here using it as an argument? Doesn’t that seem pretty pointless? Because to me you just look like you’re trying to stir the pot.

              • 0x4E4F@infosec.pubOPEnglish
                41·
                11 days ago

                No, I’m just trying to point out how ridiculous this whole situation is and that it was handled by the LF, and especially Linus, in the worst way possible.