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Did the recent Linux drama change your views on how you perceived Open Source projects? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 month ago by Artemis_Mystique@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I for one am going through quite a culture shock. I always assumed the nature of FOSS software made it immune to be confined within the policies of nations; I guess if one day the government of USA starts to think that its a security concers for china to use and contribute to core opensource software created by its citizens or based in their boundaries, they might strongarm FOSS communities and projects to make their software exclude them in someway or worse declare GPL software a threat to national security.

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[–] wewbull 6 points 1 month ago

FOSS does not mean:

Community owned: Linux is owned by the Linux Foundation, a legal entity of the United States and subject to it's laws.
Obliged to accept all contributions: The owner is free to accept or reject contributions for any reason.

Nothing changed except some people are no longer responsible for maintaining parts of the source tree. Their delegated power to accept contributions was removed. They can still propose changes, but they will be reviewed by others who aren't subject aren't at risk of Russian state influence.

This isn't saying they've done anything wrong, or that they are currently under state influence, but now that they no longer have maintainer privileges the chance of the FSB knocking on their door has probably dropped 90%.