Linux must stand up to the enemies of democracy
Update 2022-03-09
As of yesterday Red Hat has announced that they are immediately discontinuing sales and services in Russia, Belarus, and organizations headquartered in those countries.
"While relevant sanctions must guide many of our actions, we’ve taken additional measures as a company. Effective immediately, Red Hat is discontinuing sales and services in Russia and Belarus (for both organizations located in or headquartered in Russia or Belarus). This includes discontinuing partner relationships with organizations based in or headquartered in Russia or Belarus."
From Red Hats response to the war in Ukraine
Non-Violent Non-Compliance from the Open Source Community
The recent unprovoked and violent invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Military is a disgusting demonstration of how the enemies of democracy will stop at nothing to impose their will on anyone they see as weaker than they are.
If the Open Source community and Open Source Corporations like Red Hat, Suse, and Canonical do not immediately cut off any existing subscription contracts to the Russian military, government, and organizations that support them, then they are providing direct aid and comfort to the enemies of free and open societies.
I have to imagine the logistic, financial, and communications equipment used by the Russian military is primarily run by Linux operating systems. Denying these critical combat systems access to updated software security patches, and professional technical support will help significantly degrade the Russian militaries war fighting capacity and leave them vulnerable to cyber counter attacks from Ukrainian defense forces.
Red Hat, Suse, and Canonical must immediately cut off all support contracts that directly or indirectly benefits the Russian war machine. They must block all repository mirrors in the Russian Federation, and they must publish a knowledgebase article that outlines how other mirrors wishing to stand up to violent dictators can effectively block those organizations from access to their software repositories as well.
Luke