Pretty much for form I suppose, there are other ways to get those drivers.
I’ve been in a few online games with RU players and it struck me as so weird to be playing a game with someone from a nation we are basically at war with. Major WWI Xmas football vibes.
I feel that many Russians are against Putler’s regime, but are (rightfully so) too afraid to speak up.
You are wrong. More than half are in favor of the war in Ukraine.
How would that number change if all those people had access to independent reporting?
Maybe it would change but Russian culture is still Russian culture.
I don’t have access to it, but allegedly on VK which is the Russian knockoff of Facebook, they also have similar numbers of a majority in favor of destroying Ukraine.
It’s not that they’re for or against. They don’t care.
Feel bad for the average Joe over there.
Be that as it may, this is very much part of the intent of the sanctions. Creating popular dissent and dissatisfaction within Russia due to Putin’s insistence on carrying out a war of aggression is very much by design. This is the Second Cold War. We’re in it.
Weird timing
Yes, especially in light of the Linux thing this morning
Yeah, along with this I am suspecting there’s been a “suggested interpretation” from western governments to large orgs.
I’m OOTL. What Linux thing are you talking about?
A bunch of .ru email holders have been removed from the linux kernel group because of sanctions
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linus-Torvalds-Russian-Devs
The Linux project removed maintainers who were Russian or were using Russian e-mail addresses, probably to comply with sanctions. Linus hasn’t talked about the legal details because he doesn’t know if he can (and because Daddy Vladdy’s Dick Chuggers are out in full force).
Yeah… weird how sanctions work… it’s like they’re broad and affect many people and entities…
We should ask Deepcool about their experience with non-compliance.
Ok cool but we are talking about timing so
Most likely coincidence. The sanctions came into effect and their respective lawyers took about the same time to come up with a policy that complies with them. There’s nothing more to the story that would make it weird.
Huh, it’s almost as if, when sanctions are declared, they go into effect for everyone at once.
Oh nyoo, they’ll have to use the open source ones!!
Haven’t the common folk been through enough?/s
(And the open sauce nVidia drivers got actually completely viable, great effort & results)They could still just download the official drivers straight from the NVIDIA website with a VPN. Or from a mirror without one.
Did NVIDIA stop selling videocards in Russia? The article doesn’t mention it.
There aren’t many uses where discrete v-cards are needed now and where integrated won’t be enough. Machine learning, content editing, engineering and science, mostly. So besides making purchased v-cards less effective or useless, it aims at top consumers, industry, may it be media or production facilities, including MIC. Ah, and gamers, the most opressed minority.
Why bother when these blocks are so easily circumvented with VPN?
VPNs are banned in Russia to make sure they don’t accidentally get inaccurate information about the special military operation.
They aren’t legally, but many sites to get them (besides market apps) are not easily accessible and payment is not easy.
Damn, that’s fucked.