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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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for those worried about the impact of sanctions on linux, is any of the bsds a better alternative? (lemmy.eco.br)

submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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(this post obviously assumes the recent removal of russian devs due to sanctions is bad; no need to comment if you disagree)

a lot of people i know are considering jumping ship to some bsd after the recent MAINTAINERS debacle, but i'm skeptical it would make any difference. afaik, they're just as us-centric as linux if not more (it's the berkeley software distribution, after all). also, my biggest gripe about the bsds and the main reason i've never had any interest in them is their permissive licensing. permissive licenses suck

would there be any difference wrt sanctions in the bsds or moving away from linux to *bsd bc of that would be pointless?

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 week ago (5 children)

The problem isn't even where the software is officially based, it can become a problem for individual contributors too.

PGP for example used to be problematic because US exports control on encryption used to forbid exporting systems capable of strong encryption because the US wanted to be able to break it when it's used by others. Sending the tarball of the PGP software by an american to the soviets at the time would have been considered treason against the US, let alone letting them contribute to it. Heck, sharing 3D printable gun models with a foreign country can probably be considered supplying weapons like they're real guns. So even if Linux was based in a more neutral country not subject to US sanctions, the sanctions would make it illegal to use or contribute to it anyway.

As much as we'd love to believe in the FOSS utopia that transcends nationality, the reality is we all live in real countries with laws that restrict what we can do. Ultimately the Linux maintainers had to do what's best for the majority of the community, which mostly lives in NATO countries honoring the sanctions against Russia and China.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (4 children)

good response, but the last part feels a little circular reasoning

linux contributors live mostly in nato countries, so we have no choice but to push people from non-aligned countries away, which will prevent people from non-nato countries from joining, which will make most contributors be from nato countries

as someone said, people who were removed from the list can still contribute, i think, but this might lead to a situation where technology sovereignty will mean using your own regional linux fork

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

we have no choice but to push people from non-aligned countries away

Non-aligned countries are fine, they can always invade most of the countries once again, the issue is with the Eastern block.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

what's the issue?

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