The repercussions of Russia's invasion of Ukraine has spread to the developers of the free and open source Linux kernel, serving perhaps as an illustration of how interconnected the world is, sometimes in unexpected areas.
This week, a patch for the Linux kernel was issued by the developer collective behind it, which removed a bunch of volunteer Russian developers from the list of maintainers.
"Remove some entries due to various compliance requirements. They can come back in the future if sufficient documentation is provided," was the message for the patch.
In developer terms a patch is a piece of replacement code that is inserted to fix bugs, add or remove features, and to provide improvements for software.
The patch caused some consternation as the number of Russia-associated kernel code maintainers removed is about two dozen with many of them providing frequent contributions to the Linux kernel, and it wasn't entirely clear from the get-go what was going on.
A few days after the patch was issued, another kernel developer chimed in on the Linux kernel mailing list and it appears the long story short can be summarised as "legal advice to adhere to sanctions on Russia, or else."
Being sanctioned by the United States and Western nations is a serious matter, and you ignore it at your peril. The Linux kernel developers decided not to ignore the sanctions.
This matters more than what might be apparent. Almost everything electronics-related has a little computer in it. If it does, chances are high that it runs the Linux kernel. That can be TVs, car infotainment systems, broadband routers, industrial controllers, and Android smartphones.
It can also be missiles and drones used to attack other countries, as is frequently happening in Ukraine with innocent civilians being killed and maimed. In this context and in simple terms, a kernel is the top level piece of computer code that among other thing is used to access and control the hardware in devices.
The drivers in the Linux kernel for hardware access remain, but the code maintainers for these are now out. Somewhere in the region of 6000 volunteer developers work on the Linux kernel, with many being employed by several hundreds of well-known tech companies.
Obviously, such people have to pay attention to the company they keep. In fact, you could argue that the removal of the Russian developers took place quite late in the game.
As always, the final say on kernel matters usually rests with the inventor of Linux, Linus Torvalds.
Here's what the straight-talking and, as some might say, abrasive Torvalds had to say on the removal of the Russian developers:
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.
3 Comments
Well if you want something said, loud and clear, Mr Torvalds is certainly your man. Given such a terse rebuff and justification though, you might well wonder why this action has come so late in the proceedings and then only when the sanctions heavy hammer was poised. Sort of confirms the suspicions of an electronics ignoramus such as myself that every little gadget and piece of apparatus nowadays has you in its sights but even I can appreciate the ramifications this article is identifying. In old battle parlance - for want of a nail etc.
Torvald's made his position clear many times. This isn't new. What is surprising is that it took so long.
Won't make a huge difference, though. The Russians will simply 'branch the code' (i.e. like taking a copy) and keep on developing. There are 100s of 'branched code' copies of Linux around and they end up everywhere, e.g. your home WiFi router (if you're not scared by that statement, you should be). And features from branched copies get merged back into the main code base. This is how open source evolves.
you might well wonder why this action has come so late in the proceedings and then only when the sanctions heavy hammer was poised.
Generally, the open-source community tries very hard to stay away from politics.
Not sure who exactly said it (Stalwart or Torvalds) but open-source is (rightfully) a principle which isn't concerned with ethics & morals but advancement of knowledge.
If people decide to use open-source software to commit crimes or launch nukes, so be it.
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