Dismissed Linux maintainers: Direct or indirect employers are the reason

Sanctions are the reason: The people removed from the list of Linux maintainers work directly or indirectly for companies that have been sanctioned by the USA – SDN list (Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons). James Bottomley confirmed this in the mailing list in response to the departure of one of those affected. In addition to the explanation, he also apologizes for the nature of the communication, thanks them for their cooperation and offers to add their names to the credits file.

Employers directly or indirectly

In concrete terms, the ex-maintainers work for sanctioned Russian companies or for companies owned or controlled by them. This is not explicitly a general suspicion of Russian developers, as some critics have suggested. Bottomley also explains in his article what is meant by "sufficient documentation", thanks to which those affected could return: they must prove that their employer is not on the SDN list of sanctioned companies.

Bottomley also addresses the question of what US sanctions have to do with Linux: The entire Linux infrastructure is in the USA and many of the maintainers are in the USA; accordingly, US legislation cannot be ignored. With this step, it is hoped that the United States Department of the Treasury – responsible for the sanctions – can already be satisfied and no existing patches need to be removed.

In a further article, Bottomley also explains why these answers only come after the maintainers have been removed: The lawyers would still be working on the guidelines for how the project will deal with sanctions in the future. His view, which is explicitly not that of a lawyer, is that only the SDN list is decisive for the list of maintainers. This is also important because other people or companies such as Huawei contribute to Linux and are also subject to sanctions – but are not on the SDN list and have not yet been removed from the list of maintainers. Details of the affected companies can be viewed here.

No Linux ban

There is still no statement on whether the affected companies can continue to submit patches. However, it is questionable whether this is even a question: the position of a maintainer is not a prerequisite for developing for Linux – rather, maintainers decide because of rules what becomes part of Linux, especially in their area. However, changes and new features can be submitted independently of this, so the maintainers are more of a contact point for developers. Accordingly, the majority of Linux developers are not in the position of a maintainer.

(fo)