Greg Kroah-Hartman, a key Linux kernel leader, notes in a message to the Linux kernel mailing list, “Remove some entries due to various compliance requirements. They can come back in the future if sufficient documentation is provided.” That documentation comes down to proving they don’t work for entities that have been sanctioned by countries as varied as the U.S., Taiwan, Norway, and New Zealand. At least one maintainer is soon to be reinstated.
Though messy and likely distressing to those affected, this is actually good turmoil. After all, it’s an indication that open source, generally, and Linux, specifically, matters. Roll back the clock even 10 years and the world was only starting to come to terms with open source’s importance thanks to security vulnerabilities like Heartbleed. In the micro sense, this is a problem, but in the macro sense, it’s indicative of positive trends.
Never meet your heroes
On the not-so-positive side of the open source ledger is the whole WordPress controversy. I guess I follow people of a certain persuasion on X, because according to their commentary, Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg had become evil incarnate overnight, launching an unprovoked legal broadside against WP Engine. Dig into the details a bit more, as Ivan Mehta has, however, and it’s clear that there’s plenty of blame to go around.
