this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2026
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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How much influence does Red Hat/IBM/US government actually have over Fedora? (ahmadhaghighi.com)
submitted 12 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) by Adeptus_Obsoletus@piefed.social to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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I've been using Fedora for many years now. Recently, I've stumbled upon a blogpost that I'm linking here and it actually made me wonder and dig a little deeper. And I'm starting to worry over how much influence does IBM or US government have over so-called "community distro". The blog post makes a pretty clear cut case - a guy was a Fedora contributor and Fedora ambassador, but happened to live in a country that is on a USA no-no list, so he got "disappeared" from the entire project.

Another case was the thing with codecs. One day, some of the patented codecs were just gone from Fedora in general. There was no discussion, the only post we got at the beginning was basically "Red Hat lawyers said we can get sued, so we're removing these".

There is also that "Fedora Export Control Policy", which basically means you're technically not allowed to use Fedora if you're living in one of the countries they list.

All of that plus the recent state of US made me reconsider my choice of distro. I'm not a big fan of distrohopping, but it just doesn't feel right to use Fedora after everything I've seen. Feel free to share your thoughts, or maybe even pray for me, since I'll probably switch to Arch Linux after all.

EDIT: I just want to add that this post is NOT an attack on Red Hat, as during my research I've stumbled upon people who hate Red Hat because supposedly they're "destroying Linux". I think RH made a lot of important contributions to the Linux ecosystem and pushed it forward by a lot.

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[–] doodoo_wizard@lemmy.ml 15 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (2 children)

Fair warning, if you apply enough scrutiny to any big distribution you’ll find tons of stuff like this.

Theres some awesome schizo timecube esque website that documents Debian (my chosen distro) mess in great detail. I’ll edit in the url if I can find it.

E: found it: Debian History Harassment & Abuse culture evolution

If you can’t be a truther about something you’ll lie for anything I guess

[–] GreenCrunch@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 4 hours ago

(sexism, ableism, complete delusion, I've gone insane reading this website...)

I know nothing about the history and politics of Debian, but the stuff this guy is saying is bizzare.

  • Timeline starts with the publication of Orwell's Animal Farm. This is going to be good...

  • He seems to interpret people's personal lives as caused by Debian - talking about Joel Espy Klecker's death, he makes it sound like the Evil Debians were chaining him to a rock and forcing him to write software, even describing it as "modern slavery" - does he think that people wih chronic illnesses shouldn't contribute to free software?? Unless someone was actually coercing Klecker (which would obviously be bad), it seems like he was just choosing to contribute... Pocock asks if it's fair that Klecker received no compensation despite companies that use Debian making lots of money. That's how free software works...

  • Daniel Pocock refers to Daniel Pocock in the third person a lot, which makes it less obvious that this is his firsthand account and not someone else's documenting of the story.

  • "The Debian Pregnancy Cluster" (???)

  • Claiming that women are only participating in Debian because of their male partners. Followed by a mention of a woman who met their husband through Debian (so was presumably involved in it independently before that).

  • Spends a lot of time listing people who died, even if their death is unrelated to their Debian participation. There's even a graphic of people holding knives at the bottom, as if to imply that Debian is murdering people??

  • Quote "wheelchair fascism" - I am just going to provide this quote in full: "Bücherratten is demonstrating a certain amount of passive-aggressive behavior, wheeling herself up to the FSFE table at CCC, putting on the brakes and using her wheelchair to become the center of attention even before she speaks." What the hell? I have no words here... What does this person expect? They've just described someone using a wheelchair to go up to a table in a normal way. They don't elaborate on becoming the center of attention. This is equivalent to describing an ambulatory person's "passive aggressive behavior, walking up to the FSFE table at CCC, putting their feet on the floor, and using their legs to become the center of attention" (https://danielpocock.com/en/fosdem-nazi-pass-fsfe-wheelchair-fascism-facts/)

[–] digdilem@lemmy.ml 10 points 10 hours ago

Debian has always attracted zealots, many of whom were extremely... impolite... during the systemd wars, on both sides of that schism. Sadly, as in most things, the majority of reasonable, quiet, hard working community members get drowned out because, well, they're reasonable, quiet and hardworking.