News Linus Torvalds slams supporters of delisted Russian driver maintainers as ‘trolls’

[Admin]

Linus Torvalds has dismissed those concerned about the recent dismissal of Russian kernel driver maintainers as trolls.

Linus Torvalds slams supporters of delisted Russian driver maintainers as ‘trolls’ : Read more

 

[usertests]

Those darn trolls aaaaahhh!

 

[bit_user]

Linus Torvalds has dismissed those concerned about the recent dismissal of Russian kernel driver maintainers as trolls.

You're being needlessly inflammatory. He didn't state or imply there were no legitimate concerns, but that's not to say all the objections are in good faith. Before you demonize Linus, you might want to look at some of the disinformation-laden comments he's talking about. I think he was reacting to people stirring up a big public backlash, which is utterly pointless if you understand why they got removed.

The reason the maintainers got de-listed was in order to comply with sanctions, as advised by their (presumably the Linux Foundation's) lawyers. This wasn't a personal grudge on the part of Linus or any other core maintainers, as far as I can tell.

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-Compliance-Requirements
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[Elusive Ruse]

I love this guy! 😆

 

[nrdwka]

You're being needlessly inflammatory. He didn't state or imply there were no legitimate concerns, but that's not to say all the objections are in good faith. Before you demonize Linus, you might want to look at some of the disinformation-laden comments he's talking about. I think he was reacting to people stirring up a big public backlash, which is utterly pointless if you understand why they got removed.

The reason the maintainers got de-listed was in order to comply with sanctions, as advised by their (presumably the Linux Foundation's) lawyers. This wasn't a personal grudge on the part of Linus or any other core maintainers, as far as I can tell.

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https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-Compliance-Requirements​

​

The linked post describe well what linux doundation hope what that move will satisfy US and no pursuits will be charged against Linux foundation for not respecting US sanctio. And actually they are "separating" on good terms

On other hand the message from Linus feels like personal grudge against Russian maintainers => sometime it is good to do not let tech peoples to make a statement on an inflammatory subject without agreement with other paries involved (aka colleague s from Linux foundation)

 

[AndrewJacksonZA]

So, uh, are their previous contributions removed along with their names? Even though people from "approved" countries will have to redo the work?

You know, just to be safe.

 

[AndrewJacksonZA]

The reason the maintainers got de-listed was in order to comply with sanctions, as advised by their (presumably the Linux Foundation's) lawyers. This wasn't a personal grudge on the part of Linus or any other core maintainers, as far as I can tell.

​

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-Compliance-Requirements​

​

I understand your post and have read the article. I disagree with your last sentence though, Linus' wording made it sound very personal.

 

[NinoPino]

So, uh, are their previous contributions removed along with their names? Even though people from "approved" countries will have to redo the work?

You know, just to be safe.

To be removed are only the names from the MAINTEINERS file. At least for the moment patches will be accepted.

 

[NinoPino]

Linus could have simply exposed the kernel "compliance requirements", explaining the situation without doing such aggressive declarations.
And two phrases sound very ugly. The "Did you think I'd be *supporting* Russian aggression?” that indirectly imply that Linus think that accepting Russians contribution to the Linux kernel means support Russia military operation, that is obviously a foolish thinking. I hope Linus do not think this for real.
The other ugly affirmation was the "patriotic" Finnish origin that is absolutely of bad taste in this context. This personal and unhappy statement put a very bad light on Linus professionalism as "Kernel impartial coordinator".

 

[husker]

 

[bit_user]

On other hand the message from Linus feels like personal grudge against Russian maintainers

I disagree. I think he was reacting to the backlash that occurred, after the maintainers were removed. The removed maintainers are a small group of people that he could deal with individually, if need be. There's no reason for him to make such public statements, if it mainly was being addressed to them.

 

[bit_user]

So, uh, are their previous contributions removed along with their names? Even though people from "approved" countries will have to redo the work?

Last I checked, no patches were getting reverted and the prior maintainers retained credit for the work they had done.

The article I linked said the removal simply had to do with the maintainers employers being on a list of sanctioned entities.

You know, just to be safe.

It's not related to any concerns they were planting backdoors, or anything like that. It's just that many of the maintainers can't legally collaborate with people working for companies on the sanctioned entities list.

 

[bit_user]

Linus could have simply exposed the kernel "compliance requirements", explaining the situation

So, the way we got to the place we're at now (or when this article was written) is that the individuals were removed from the MAINTAINERS file with little explanation and no warning. This turns out to be due to things still being discussed with the lawyers and someone probably decided they needed to get in compliance with the sanctions before the lawyers were ready to draft a public statement. It was not well-handled, as the article I linked acknowledges.

Then, after a couple days' worth of public backlash and trolling, Linus made those remarks in exasperation. So, by that point, he was fed up with the fuss many were making and the various disinformation-infested posts to the mailing list, etc.

The other ugly affirmation was the "patriotic" Finnish origin that is absolutely of bad taste in this context.

I think it makes some sense, in context. Finland shares the longest land border with Russia of any European country. They know Russia and Russians quite well. Where some of the trolls think they might be able to fool people from other countries, he's just informing them they're wasting their time on him.

 

[MiniITXEconomy]

You're being needlessly inflammatory. He didn't state or imply there were no legitimate concerns, but that's not to say all the objections are in good faith...

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Were they? Even those people who were complaining in good faith were given some attitude in the, "If you haven't heard of Russian sanctions, then watch the news and NOT just state-sponsored spam," line. It's not so much needlessly inflammatory, as just calling it like they see's it - the dude was going after everyone. To which I say, good on him for that.

 

[AndrewJacksonZA]

[quoting me]

I think you misread my intention in that post. It wasn't to be taken literally, it was a critique of what happened.