Perhaps one of the more surprising changes in the 6.12-rc4 development kernel was the removal of several entries from the kernel’s MAINTAINERS file. The patch performing the removal was sent (by Greg Kroah-Hartman) only to the patches@lists.linux.dev mailing list; the change was included in a char-misc drivers pull request with no particular mention.
The explanation for the removal is simply ““various compliance requirements””. Given that the developers involved all appear to be of Russian origin, it is not too hard to imagine what sort of compliance is involved here. There has, however, been no public posting of the policy that required the removal of these entries.
An early comment likely pins down the prevailing institutional pressures leading to this decision
What’s the deal with an international project adhering to what is obviously a decision of the US government?
Hint: The Linux Foundation (which notably employs Greg KH and Torvalds, and provides a lot of the legal and other infrastructure for this “international project”) is based in the US, and therefore has to follow US laws.
This is pretty fucked up. Like, we might see the kernel forked in the coming months/years.
See also: Phoronix: Linus Torvalds Comments On The Russian Linux Maintainers Being Delisted
IMO there are many alternative kernels than Linux. It’s a good kernel, but it’s also written in C, is monolithic to a fault, and has a lot of legacy debt.
I don’t think a new kernel will take over from tomorrow, but this will give projects like Redox a boost (hopefully) and slowly encourage enterprises to consider other systems for their software.
Linux was already showing its age with the reluctance of the incumbent maintainers to support new technologies and ideas because it threatened their superiority complexes, and this is yet another sign that maybe reform isn’t the solution.
I feel like Linux may be going the way of UNIX. Not in some pessimistic “it’s joever” way, but in the way that it eventually will be superseded by an improved project with better leadership, better technologies, and better principles.
I remember having this shower thought, “it’s weird to imagine people still using Linux in 2050.” Of the three main OS, Linux is the oldest one. Windows NT is slightly newer than Linux and macOS is only around 2 decades old. Even the various BSDs are slightly newer than Linux.