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You do realize that working for a tech company that does less than a single-digit percentage of their revenue dealing with the military-industrial complex is not comparable to a company actually producing weapons as part of that industry, do you? Apart from the fact that the genocide you mention is not even carried out by the US but an ally, so there's another level of indirection.

> I happen to actually be very very open to that argument.
I'm sure you are and have been for a long time, and I'm certain nobody cares.

Some time ago, I pointed out that I was 99% sure that software I wrote was used to kill people (offensive military robots). I'm also 99% sure it has been used to save innocent lives (bomb disposal robots by same manufacturer). I'm 99% sure it has been used to plan (if not outright commit) any number of crimes Yet the overwhelming majority of its use has been to watch cat videos, read email, and other "normal people" activities.

The software in question? A wifi driver that was part of the mainline linux kernel for more than a decade. But before it got mainlined, the maker of those robots paid my employer to figure out a problem that caused high-bandwidth streaming video dropouts. _Every other user_ of that driver benefited from those reliability improvements.

My point? Any given Linux (or almost any F/OSS) contributor is at most two steps away from being directly affiliated with a military force. This standard is not"very difficult to escape"; it is for all intents pretty much impossible.

Do you want to live in a just and peaceful world?

If so, you're not helping.

In the case of Israel there is photographic evidence that they stripped Palestinian captives to the underwear.

In the case of Russia there is photographic evidence they stripped Ukrainan captives to the underwear and then shot them.

Treating these as if they are the same is going to lead to more wars and bigger wars.

We'll just... conveniently ignore all those other statistics like starvation, right?

Because I wasn't a farmer, I'm ethically responsible for every starving child, right?
Due to not tending a garden, I'm culpable for all the evils of economics and automations and profiteering, right?

Because I owned a screwdriver, someone somewhere was stabbed with an icepick and it's my fault for having a similarly shaped tool, right?

*because I have hands that could strangle someone, I should be imprisoned, or have them removed, right?*

Where does the madness end?

Tools work at the behest of their holder. We do not blame our tools. We blame ourselves.

Which is why I asked what specifically is wrong in this instance.

Not answering is answer enough, though.

The problem here is not complying with sanctions. It's not even necessarily about the specific people who were removed as maintainers.

It's the way in which it was done: very quietly, with the patch sent only to patches@lists.linux.dev, and then hidden in an unrelated char-misc pull request, and no credible explanation given. Yes, there was a changelog, but it was incredibly vague and explains very little -- the real explanation has come to light in follow-ups.

The problem is that all of this was done sneakily, in secrecy (which failed and backfired, by the way). It should have been done fully in the open with some kind of explanation as to the criteria. The way it was done created unnecessary fear because it did not spell out why certain maintainers were being given the boot. Did it target Russian nationals? Or certain companies? (Yes, we know the answer NOW, but we didn't at the time, since this was not explained in the patch.) Who is next? Chinese citizens? Chinese companies?

Top maintainers forcibly removing people from maintainer positions is a very strong use of power. It's an extreme action compared to anything we've ever seen in the Linux kernel. It's a devastating predicament for those involved, whether they deserved it or not. It sends a signal -- but what signal? Without the accompanying explanation, it could be interpreted in a number of ways. Are all Russians now persona non grata in the Linux kernel? I think that's a very dangerous mindset, very similar to how Jews, Arabs, etc. have historically been treated in the Western world. A simple up-front explanation would have avoided this unfortunate implication.

I'm not defending any specific person because I don't know the maintainers involved. But I disagree profoundly with the way it was done.

We don't sneak things in. We're better than this. Especially following the UMN scandal and the xz backdoor. This should not be hard to understand.