Russian Developers Blocked From Contributing To FOSS Tools (theregister.com) 170
The Reg has seen two recent incidents of Russian developers being blocked from public development of FOSS code. One was a refusal on the Linux kernel mailing list, the other a more general block on Github. In the last week, these events have both caused active, and sometimes heated, discussions in FOSS developer communities. From the report: The GitHub account of developer Alexander Amelkin has been blocked, and his repositories marked as "archived" â" including ipmitool, whose README describes it as "a utility for managing and configuring devices that support the Intelligent Platform Management Interface." Unable to comment on Github itself, Amelkin described what happened on the project's older Soureforge page.
Amelkin works for Russian chipbuilder Yadro, which we described as working on RISC-V chips back in 2021. Microsoft is just obeying US law in this: according to the War and Sanctions database of the Ukrainian National Agency on Corruption Prevention, the NACP, Yadro is a sanctioned company. However, on LinkedIn, Amelkin disputes his employer's involvement. Over on Hacker News, commentators seem to be generally in favor of the move, although the discussion on LWN is more measured, pointing out both that there is little threat from server-management tools like this, but that Microsoft probably has no choice.
Amelkin is not alone. Over on the Linux Kernel Mailing List, a contribution from Sergey Semin has been refused with the terse notice: "We don't feel comfortable accepting patches from or relating to hardware produced by your organization. Please withhold networking contributions until further notice." Semin is a developer at chipmaker Baikal Electronics, a company whose website has been suspended for a year now, as we noted a year ago in a story that also mentions Yadro. We were reporting on Baikal's efforts to develop its own CPUs nearly a decade ago, mere months after the Russian annexation of Crimea. And once again, there is spirited debate over the move on the Orange Site.
Amelkin works for Russian chipbuilder Yadro, which we described as working on RISC-V chips back in 2021. Microsoft is just obeying US law in this: according to the War and Sanctions database of the Ukrainian National Agency on Corruption Prevention, the NACP, Yadro is a sanctioned company. However, on LinkedIn, Amelkin disputes his employer's involvement. Over on Hacker News, commentators seem to be generally in favor of the move, although the discussion on LWN is more measured, pointing out both that there is little threat from server-management tools like this, but that Microsoft probably has no choice.
Amelkin is not alone. Over on the Linux Kernel Mailing List, a contribution from Sergey Semin has been refused with the terse notice: "We don't feel comfortable accepting patches from or relating to hardware produced by your organization. Please withhold networking contributions until further notice." Semin is a developer at chipmaker Baikal Electronics, a company whose website has been suspended for a year now, as we noted a year ago in a story that also mentions Yadro. We were reporting on Baikal's efforts to develop its own CPUs nearly a decade ago, mere months after the Russian annexation of Crimea. And once again, there is spirited debate over the move on the Orange Site.
And then things... (Score:2)
I wonder if Putin should just rename himself to Got Worse. Him and Not Sure can duke it out in the sequel.
This is how wars really start (Score:1, Insightful)
There is nothing on earth worse than the people of one nation punishing the people of another nation, for stupid acts the governments of said nations perform.
It's not the people that want wars generally, but if you shut them out individuals enough they may warm up to the idea as they will stop thinking of you as human too, and then the government has free reign.
Re:This is how wars really start (Score:5, Insightful)
The idea behind sanctions is to not only hurt the government, but make the people aware of its governments actions. When the people feel enough pain they'll go against their government (except in North Korea, China, and a few other autocracies).
As the saying goes, actions have consequences. You want to invade your neighbor? Congrats, we won't do business with you and we'll penalize anyone who does.
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(except in North Korea, China, and a few other autocracies).
Ok, now name countries where that has worked.
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No not Egypt, I know, Iraq!
Wait, not Iraq, Iran!
Oh, not Iran? What about Cuba, it worked there didn't it?
Anyway, sanctions are great and always work.
Re:This is how wars really start (Score:5, Insightful)
Saouth Africa boycotts really did help to take down apartheid.
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How is South Africa doing today?
Right.
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Better than it was during apartheid.
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Are you saying they should have continued with apartheid ?
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I'm saying that the real world is a complicated place and often those with the best intentions end up doing the most damage. Few will say it out loud but most who look at Iraq objectively today will agree that place was better off when Saddam was in power before we showed up "to help."
Re: This is how wars really start (Score:2)
The boycotts were the face saving excuse the old regime needed to dissolve itself. The moral argument had an audience there that was receptive enough to it to listen. Same as in the US a few decades before. If there weren't people willing to listen, then no amount of poking, prodding, or even violence would have worked. The regime would have suppressed it and the people would have been glad it happened.
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Venezuela. Okay they didn't help the Venezuelans, but they did give US politicians a great example of how socialism can't possible lead to anything good. Obviously they have to say that all the successful socialist countries are not really socialist too.
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Useful idiot is the term they use.
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All the states in Eastern Europe? I was born in communist Romania and I can tell you, then the regime was overthrown, there was mass support of it not because most of the people wanted freedom but because most of the people were hungry.
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Thats all fine in practice, but history really doesnt support this as being effective.
The *only* example ever given is usually South Africa and apartheid. But it should be lost on few that thats not how South Africans see it. I've asked white south africans why they voted to eliminate apartheid, and they never say "The sanctions". Its always "Because apartheid was evil".
Now look at all the examples where it hasnt.
After WW1 extensive sanctions where placed on the germans. It turned the industrial powerhouse
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The *only* example ever given is usually South Africa and apartheid. But it should be lost on few that thats not how South Africans see it. I've asked white south africans why they voted to eliminate apartheid, and they never say "The sanctions". Its always "Because apartheid was evil".
Well, perhaps the sanctions opened their eyes to the truth, or are they claiming that they were already changing things themselves? Regarding all your examples, be they as they may, it's hard to say in how far things are functional as a deterrent. We think to know the death penalty isn't much of one, but we do believe that serving justice is necessary. So not putting sanctions could be seen as encouragement...
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Sanctions by themselves won't change a country's behaviour, if that's your goal. They have to be backed up with something more forceful.
In this case, sanctions are becoming less effective as time goes by and Russia goes through a (painful) realignment. Their trade with China is growing like crazy and they're busy building a new block along with China in Asia and other parts of the Global South that isn't supporting the West and Ukraine. After all this, a large part of the world will have reduced dependenc
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That should have said: "but thinking they're screwed at home is NOT going to bring that goal any closer."
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Problem is if you do try to trade with them in the hope that they adopt our values, you get slammed for that too. Europe did it with Russia and gas, everyone did it with China.
Sanctions are politically comfortable. When was the last time a politician was criticised for sanctioning Russia or China or NK or Iran?
Re: This is how wars really start (Score:2)
If your argument is that future dictators will use the fact that you dared levy sanctions as future ammo to turn sentiment against you then yeah, I don't know how you could avoid that.
I think it's important to learn the correct lessons from history and I'm tired of the "Germany was crippled by WWI sanctions" falsehood. It seems to be the European counterpart of "the American
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BACKFIRE (Score:1)
And how do you respond, truly, when someone forces you to a choice?
NATO and Co. are not yet fully at war with Russia, but we are on the way
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Is that a trick question? Just because you're applying sanctions one day doesn't preclude you from going to war the day after.
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When the people feel enough pain they'll go against their government (except in North Korea, China, and a few other autocracies).
Give example where this thing worked instead because I can't think of any...
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Anyone who thinks Russia is any different to China or North Korea or Iran when it comes to the ability of its citizens to affect genuine change doesn't know how things work.
Running against Putin and his party in elections is a great way to end up in the nearest Gulag (or whatever the equivalent is modern Russia)
Re: This is how wars really start (Score:2)
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So then what, continue giving money to these companies that funnel it straight into Putin's pockets? This is entirely analogous to wanting to buy VW's from Hitler's Germany.
Or put it another way, by trying to keep Russians from hating on you then you only make other countries hate on you instead. Do you want to turn around and tell Ukraine "this looks bad, we really feel sorry for you being tortured and your children sent to reeducation camps, but we want cheap oil and Russia has that"?
My guess some of th
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The story is about a Russian wanting to give something to the world for free.
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Are these devs volunteers, or working for their company? One company of which is explicitly listed on the sanction list. It's unclear for one person but seems to be work for hire for the other. Maybe it's unfair guilt by association for the guilty - but it's war, war is unfair, tell it to the dead that a Russian is locked out of open source code base and see what they think. GitHub is not to blame here, Putin is.
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And that's a point Microsoft and the Linux people likely considered. No need for Hitler.
Re: This is how wars really start (Score:2)
Biden and Trump how?
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
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This seems like a silly argument. You have to vet every commit by everyone you don't trust anyway. I doubt very much that the majority of Russian intelligence is going to start their PRs with "Da comrade, I am Russian coder. Please accept pull request" just like nobody of any nationality writes "h1, 1 4m 4 1337 h4ck32. h323 15 4 pu11 23qu357, 101."
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Not at all, the story is about an employee of a Russian company making money from FOSS who wanted to add some patches that help the business of his employer. Note hat the mentioned employer is the sponsor of a terrorist state.
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how do you mean just like funelling money in US companies producing the weapons used for the illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003 ?
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Re:This is how wars really start (Score:5, Insightful)
They already started a war and didn't need our permission. Sanctions are not about punishing, they're about limiting their ability to keep attacking, looting and razing a sovereign nation and killing innocent people. People like you would have bought swastika swag because it wasn't the people who wanted the Nazi blitzkrieg. Can't hold the people responsible for their government, can we.
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That being said, the general population will not go protestin' and overthrowin', instead they will get progressively more hostile towards the West. Most people who would go protestin' and overthrowin' already left -- Putin cleverly just let them go.
Re:This is how wars really start (Score:5, Interesting)
So far them sanctions did a lousy job limiting attacking, looting and razing and killing.
Russia's economy is imploding and they can now barely even manage source parts to keep their commercial aviation aloft. Russia's war machine has been severely hampered by inability to secure foreign components at scale.
They did, however, do a good job getting the general population pissed.
Nobody gives a fuck. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
That being said, the general population will not go protestin' and overthrowin', instead they will get progressively more hostile towards the West.
While they sure as shit won't protest the war if things keep going as they are it is quite plausible Russia finds itself consumed by internal conflict and fragmented by competing interests as their military power is flushed down the drain and their economy collapses.
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Internal conflict in Russia is all fun and games and nobody-gives-a-fucks, except they have nukes, and you might just get a taste of it, however little fucks you give. It seems you play stupid games, you might end up winning stupid prizes.
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The statement was that them sanctions were about limiting attacking, looting and razing and killing. Them sanctions did a lousy job of that.
The sanctions have been quite effective as explained.
Nobody gives a fuck about Russia's economy.
Economy is directly linked to the war machine. It impacts the ability to produce military hardware, train, equip and supply military endeavor. Mordor lacks the infrastructure to keep up with consumption of ammo and equipment. It has zero internal ability to produce high tech components. Mordor is burning through cold war era stockpiles from USSR with no hope of replenishment commensurate with demand.
Internal conflict in Russia is all fun and games and nobody-gives-a-fucks, except they have nukes
You have a point, I don't give a fuck.
and you might just get a taste of it, however little fucks you give.
Again you are
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There is no future in a post trinity world that tolerates conquest.
Ace, thank you. And consider that stolen. ;-)
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oh, you mean just like the US invading Iraq, fucking with afghanistan because, god forbids, they had lawfully elected a communist government in Afghanistan in 1978 (operation Cyclone) ?
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looks to me like you're describing the behavior in the US in the dozens of countries they illegally invaded or fucked with over the years since the end of WW2 (and some before, like Haiti)
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Some of the MAGA crowd have it wrong. One senator complaining that only US is giving money to Ukraine and Europe isn't - which is false. US has given more but per-capita it is larger than Europe. Europe has given $55 billion in financial support to Ukraine, US is $26 billion finanancial. Military support the US gives more though, so overall it is larger. However this is also a strategic US goal so the military support to keep a stable Europe, and also Europe is a friend, is what that support is for. Y
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> Some of the MAGA crowd have it wrong
"Some of"?!
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> 120 years after
World War 1 started 109 years ago. Just saying.
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+101 for that!
Re:This is how wars really start (Score:5, Interesting)
There is nothing on earth worse than the people of one nation punishing the people of another nation, for stupid acts the governments of said nations perform.
Government is only possible via the consent of the governed. Even in totalitarian states ruled by force either by fear or agreement it only works if people beat the drums the government wants them to.
It's not the people that want wars generally
Given the countless hours of street interviews I've seen in Russia with Russians over the last year it seems to me in fact plurality of people do want war. Most Russians seem perfectly willing to justify invasion by parroting provably false insane talking points from 24x7 propaganda piped into their living rooms.
The vast majority of complaints coming from Russia take the form of whining about conditions and getting angry over the fact the rest of the world hates them. A very small portion of the population is doing anything constructive.
but if you shut them out individuals enough they may warm up to the idea as they will stop thinking of you as human too, and then the government has free reign.
All that matters to Orcs is Russkiy mir. If Orcs want to be treated as anything other than accomplices to mass murder they will need to demonstrate they are not just standing on the sidelines while their friends and family participate in murder and commit war crimes. Some have done exactly this in spades, the vast majority have not. The vast majority firmly supports Putler whose approval has skyrocketed since his aggression.
That's not the only way (Score:1)
Government is only possible via the consent of the governed.
How can you look around the world today, and say that? I can't agree.
Also ask all of the people through history how much consent they had through brutal regimes that killed millions.
Government is possible via consent, yes... but there is another way - force and fear. History has showed that works quite well too, for a while...
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I don't like this statement and don't think it reflects reality.
What part of it do you believe does not reflect reality?
It's not fair to punish people for the actions of their government especially in totalitarian states.
Surely nobody is talking about making civilians criminally liable for the actions of their government or attacking them or stealing shit from them or any such shit. There is in my view a substantial difference between not affirmatively receiving help and support and receiving punishment. A distinction that is perhaps not fully captured by the invocation of the word punish in the abstract.
Other societies have no duty to actively engage in commerce wit
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Russians are human beings, not Orcs. Listen to yourself spout racism.
Russia is a country not a "race" and your venn diagram is slightly out of whack. Orcs are subhuman.
Human Russians exist (albeit rare these days) and Orcs are by no means exclusive to Russia.
For example there are human Russians in Ukraine fighting against invading hordes of Orcs from Mordor.
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Here's the thing though, as I'm sure you're well aware ipmitool is used for managing the bare metal backing virtual server clusters. Letting a Russian national participate unfettered in that effort is a threat to the national security of practically the entire rest of the world. This is true regardless of whether Alexander is and intends to continue contribute purely honorably because at some point he may be pressured by the Russian government to do otherwise, and you well know that too you duplicitous fuck
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you idiot don't realize the rest of the stack is mostly manufactured in china...
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Now comes the debate whether or not the people of Russia have any choice in choosing who rules them. Nevertheless, I'm sure there are people that wholeheartedly support their government, be it in the USA or in Russia.
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Newsflash, WW III is in already full swing. you just chose to ignore it.
Re: This is how wars really start (Score:2)
Storm in a teacup... (Score:3)
If I am reading correctly, both developers were blocked to contribute on behalf of their sanctioned employers ...
I am certain that if those same developers contributed to some other projects (say, libcaca) on a personal, non corporate basis, their contributions would be allowed. So, seems to be a clickbaity title...
In another point, the anecdote about IPIMITool resonates with me due to my line of work.
Woud I use an IPIMI tool developed by a Russian national working for a russian company under normal circumstances?
Yes, yes indeed.
Why not? I live in Venezuela, so, between an IPIMI tool backdored by russia, another one backdored by china, and another one backdored by the five eyes, I'll choose whichever FOSS IPIMI Tool performs better for my needs.
Would I do so when the russian army crossed the borders of another nation-state unprovoked and a year latter is still conducting special military operations there?
Nope, not with something as delicate as IPIMI. I do not want even the remotest posibility to become collateral (cyber)damage.
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Your risk is the trash code running on your closed-source IPMI stack, not the open-source access tool.
That stack is full of holes and state actors have exploits on hand.
The danger to the Open Source movement. (Score:1, Insightful)
The recent incidents of Russian developers being blocked from contributing to FOSS code on Github and the Linux Kernel Mailing List are concerning for the Open Source movement. This is particularly worrying given that Github, the most important repository for the Open Source community, is owned by Microsoft. With Microsoft obeying US law on international sanctions, there is a risk that the Open Source movement could become dependent on these sanctions, which can harm the progress and collaboration of the FO
Re:The danger to the Open Source movement. (Score:4, Interesting)
As a Ukrainian, I am particularly sympathetic to the concerns around international sanctions, but it is important to remember that the Open Source movement should remain a space for innovation and cooperation.
You say you're Ukrainian, but I'd bet just about anything I've got that you don't live in Ukraine. USA I'd guess, probably born and raised here or at least lived the vast majority of your life here. Your English is far too good and the style suggests "native speaker" to me. I've actually been to Ukraine. Went a bunch of times in the decade of 2000-2010. I know some people who still live there. No way are you actually some who lives in Ukraine, not just because of your English, but because of your plea to let Russians contribute. Nobody in Ukraine who isn't a Russian sympathizer would say that.
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right, he's not ukrainian enough if he doesn't really believe in the US-imposed bullying ?
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I am Ukrainian, and I moved to the United States with my family in 1992, shortly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. I have completed both high school and college here, and while my English is considered good, I do speak with an accent. I have spent most of my life living in the United States.
However, I think there may have been a misunderstanding about my point of view. While I am fervently in support of Ukrainian victory and full economic, cultural, and technical isolation of the Russians, I have r
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I understand your point of view and I do support it. However, Microsoft is a money-making entity and obviously they determined that enabling Russian developers was either a PR risk, legal liability, or both. I looked at the message for rejected patch on the LKML and the first part reads:
We don't feel comfortable accepting patches from or relating to hardware produced by your organization.
Note that they wrote "organization" and not "nation". I looked into the organization (Baikal Electronics) and they have very close ties to the Russian government.
per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Baikal Electronics plans to ship 15.000 CPUs per month, mostly to Russian state-owned companies running government-approved software such as Astra Linux.
This is why accepting p
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While there may be arguments in favor of these moves, such as the need to comply with regulations, the FOSS community should strive for inclusivity and collaboration, regardless of political tensions.
At the moment, the Russian state/FSB has a large incentive to introduce remotely exploitable bugs into software that NATO nations largely depend on. You may not think so but this is a very serious security matter. This isn't permanent.
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At the moment, the Russian state/FSB has a large incentive to introduce remotely exploitable bugs into software that NATO nations largely depend on. You may not think so but this is a very serious security matter. This isn't permanent.
As do several other nations and their intelligence services.
The patch & code is open, and it's for hardware that's almost exclusively used in Russia.
The refusal isn't technical, it isn't security based, it's clearly political, and that's inappropriate for the kernel. The maintainer here should be overridden
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As do several other nations and their intelligence services.
I haven't seen evidence that any nation has done this, though nothing is gained by tempting them.
The patch & code is open, and it's for hardware that's almost exclusively used in Russia.
I looked at the company making hardware in question and they are effectively contractors for the Russian government. This could easily be construed as helping the Russian government, therefore accepting their patches is a political action in itself and possibly a violation of sanctions. Also, if like you say, "several other nations and their intelligence services" are poisoning the Linux kernel then this would b
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As do several other nations and their intelligence services.
I haven't seen evidence that any nation has done this, though nothing is gained by tempting them.
You really need me to point you to cases where organizations like the NSA have tried to influence industry standard software or inject backdoors for their own gain?
The patch & code is open, and it's for hardware that's almost exclusively used in Russia.
I looked at the company making hardware in question and they are effectively contractors for the Russian government.
So what? Plenty of other hardware companies hold contracts to the US government, UK government, Israeli government, etc etc
This could easily be construed as helping the Russian government, therefore accepting their patches is a political action in itself and possibly a violation of sanctions.
By that standard, any acceptance of any code from anyone tangentially related to a government contract somewhere would be 'a political action in itself'. The Linux Kernel is an international open source project - whilst some
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You really need me to point you to cases where organizations like the NSA have tried to influence industry standard software or inject backdoors for their own gain?
For open source, yes. I know about Windows and NIST but this is an open source project.
So what? Plenty of other hardware companies hold contracts to the US government, UK government, Israeli government, etc etc
You may have missed the news but Russia is presently attempting to a genocide and committing war crimes.
By that standard, any acceptance of any code from anyone tangentially related to a government contract somewhere would be 'a political action in itself'.
The organization in question makes computers almost exclusively for the Russian government. They are far from being tangentially related to the Russian government.
I was meaning that there are incentives for multiple countries to inject remotely injectable bugs
There are also stronger disincentives. Right now there aren't any disincentives for Russia.
You seemed to have presumed that this is a blanket ban on all Russ
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hmm, and the US and Israel are actively doing the same in software they then sell to their pretend "allies", spare me the virtue signaling.
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What does anything I wrote have to do with virtue much less signalling it? The only argument I've presented is that NATO nations use this software and it would be a serious security matter if it's compromised. You may not have considered it but economic sabotage is a way to attack another nation.
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NATO are free to do a code review on the Linux code and decide whether or not to use it.
Russia are free to do a code review on the Linux code and decide whether or not to use it.
Any other potential state actors evaluating the use of Linux are free to do a code review on the Linux code and decide whether or not to use it.
Linux is not an arm of NATO nor of any NATO-member government. It is an international collaborative FOSS project. Code should be examined on a case by case basis to determine if it presents
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Linux is not an arm of NATO nor of any NATO-member government.
On the contrary, the Linux Foundation and it's core members are located in NATO nations and therefore subject to those laws.
All that's going on here is that a maintainer decided to reject a patch apparently based on the nationality of the person and company involved.
Wrong.
The rejection reads:
We don't feel comfortable accepting patches from or relating to hardware produced by your organization.
Note that they wrote "organization" and not "nation". I looked into the organization (Baikal Electronics) and they have very close ties to the Russian government.
per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Baikal Electronics plans to ship 15.000 CPUs per month, mostly to Russian state-owned companies running government-approved software such as Astra Linux.
This is why accepting patches from them is problematic as it could be construed as "providing material support" to the Russian government. Furthermore, it could p
Sanctions are sanctions (Score:5, Insightful)
They could be saints... but they should try being saints not working for Russian companies benefiting Russia while it's invading its neighbors and committing war crimes.
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hmm, yeah,,,
Korea war, 4M civilians died under US bombing
Vietnam war, 2M civilians died under US bombing
those were also crimes against humanity, they could even be construed as genocide.
the US need to look in a mirror and stop bullying the rest of the world.
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It's probably not easy for Russian nationals looking for high end tech jobs find work with non-sanctioned companies. They are getting screwed for the actions of their government, and Russia isn't a real democracy.
Unfortunately there isn't a lot we can do about it, other than offer them amnesty if they can escape Russia.
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There is no practical alternative to collective punishment at the nation-state level. We peasants can try to resist our government or flee it, because to the rest of the world sitting silently - even in a horribly oppressive dictatorship - is helping that government.
It sucks, but the alternative is to refuse to take action against a threat as a whole because we have empathy for the parts.
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Russian usually work for russian companies and these people need to eat.
Not all Russian companies are sanctioned. You can choose your employer.
These people have nothing to do with war crimes and github&al are just doing some kind of virtue signaling.
And yet the whole point of sanctioned entities is that they do in fact have something to do with the war (not warcrimes, that will be dealt with using a different mechanism).
They have a choice in how they eat. They made it. As did Katerina who I work with. Who is she? Just some Russian who got dissuaded by the actions of her government a few years ago and left. She's still eating fine by the way, just no longer in Moscow.
Incorporate in Cyprus (Score:2)
You can avoid sanctions that way. It worked for Owlcat.
Nobody's blocked (Score:3)
First of all, this is just collateral damage from blocking a sanctioned employer... something Microsoft has no choice but to do. It's unfortunate collateral damage, but a hell of a lot less serious than all the Ukrainian civilians killed by Russia (and some of that was deliberate, not collateral.)
Secondly, the whole point of git is that it's decentralized. There's nothing stopping Amelkin from setting up a self-hosted Gitlab or Gitea instance and making it the canonical ipmitool repo.
Sanctions must be respected (Score:2)
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unilateral sanctions must be responded too.
next time the US invade somewhere illegally (a repeat of Iraq 2003), there WILL be consequences.
what bullshit... (Score:1)
by this logic, all US companies and contributors should be banned, considering the actions of this country since WW2,
Korea war, Vietnam War, fucking with south america for a century (the monroe doctrine), and more recenty the illegal invasion of Iraq, destruction of Lybia, fucking with democratically elected governments in a number of countries, and the list goes on.
FUCK THIS, THE US BULLYING THE REST OF THE WORLD HAS TO STOP
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You know Github is owned by Microsoft, right?
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what kind of a bullshit argument is that ?
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At best your argument is based on whataboutism and can be instantly turned around - why should US and Israel face any pressure to change what they are doing when you are giving Putin a free pass?
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using the "whataboutism" joker card means you have no valid argument.
the US and Israel should be shamed for their continuous action since the end of WW2,
the US and Israel are responsible for the death of hundred of millions , spare me with the fucking virtue signaling.
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Good plan. How? No one will give Russians a visa. Only a few places, like Georgia, let them in, and Georgia has about had its fill of Russians by now. Then, if you do try to leave, you just might find yourself suddenly in the Russian army.
US gives asylum to Guatemalans and Mexicans who are skilled lawn maintainers, but no asylum for Russian programmers.