Given the latest tantrums that Trump is throwing and that he is openly attacking allies, would it be possible for him to cut access to Fedora for users outside of the USA?
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Well I doubt he knows what Fedora is, let alone cares, and he’s not going apply a blanket ban to block everyone else from accessing all US services. Maybe it is technically possible, but I wouldn’t worry.
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Obviously he doesn’t know what Fedora is (I doubt he even knows what exactly “Linux” is). But he still has the power to ban “exporting” technology that his minions tell him are important for the USA. And if “Linux” was banned outside the USA, where would that leave us with Fedora?
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I see what you mean, but Linux does generate money for US companies (Google and Red Hat come to mind), so it wouldn’t make much sense to ban exports as far as I can see.
Interesting hypothetical though. I have no idea.
At the moment, Fedora complies with export restrictions to a number of countries/regions:
(a) to a prohibited destination country under the EAR and the U.S. Department of Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Controls (currently Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and the Crimea Region of Ukraine, subject to change as posted by the United States government);
Trump can do it. But why?
And…
Even if he imposes such restrictions, you have two options:
- Get US citizenship and fear nothing (Trump openly suggests other countries to join the USA).
- Choose the pirate path (fedora/linux nulled/sized), if you are outside the US.
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Why would a regular end-user outside the US want Fedora that much?
I’d raise why there’s politics involved at all and the above question 
Fedora is Red Hat, which is US based, under IBM, which has contracts some of which would probably raise moral questions for non-US countries if you looked hard enough. There’s other distros, and afaik Ubuntu/Canonical and SUSE are the main non-US distros.
Plus, SELinux is historically NSA. People talk about backdoors and Intel Management Engine, but is anyone legit running Fedora in a corporation/serious business outside of the US, in-lieu of other distros?
For example, I am outside the US and I use Fedora, and will continue to use it 
If you allow me, I will clarify - I was not talking about Fedora so much as about Linux in general.
Besides, it is not that difficult, for example, to distribute a part of the Linux kernel in the form of blobs, specially signed or encrypted to control distribution. Or, in extreme cases, to distribute a ready-made chip with embedded microcode that cannot be changed. (I was just discussing this with my friends about a possible future).
He’ll probably nuke everyone right after he blocks fedora. He’s such a mean guy. Pretty sure as much as he has accomplished, and obviously not an idiot, I’d guess he knows what linux is. Perhaps Elon might fill him in, unless he doesn’t know either.
If you’re not interested in this topic, you’re free to not participate. There’s no need to insult people over it.
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… a small contribution to the topic here from a European perspective …
The history of Linux begins in Europe, specifically in Finland. In 1991, a 21-year-old computer science student, Linus Torvalds, at the University of Helsinki, developed the first Linux kernel. He was inspired by Minix, a small Unix-like operating system created by Dutch professor Andrew S. Tanenbaum for educational purposes.
Torvalds aimed to create a free, powerful operating system that could run on standard PC hardware. On August 25, 1991, he announced his project in a Usenet post and soon after released Linux 0.01. Though still very basic, it laid the foundation for today’s open-source movement.
At the same time, American programmer Richard Stallman had launched the GNU Project in 1983 to develop a free Unix-like operating system. Since Linux as a kernel and GNU as a set of system tools fit together perfectly, they formed what is now known as the GNU/Linux operating system.
Thanks to the global open-source community, Linux grew rapidly. In the 1990s, important distributions such as Debian (1993), Red Hat (1994), and SuSE (1994, Germany) emerged. Today, Linux is widely used in servers, supercomputers, smartphones (Android), and embedded systems.
What started as a student project in Europe became one of the most influential operating systems in the world. And despite the election of Trump, we Europeans have no problem with the U.S. continuing to participate in the open-source ecosystem of Linux in the future. After all, freedom, collaboration, and openness are at the heart of Linux—values that transcend politics.
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I think anyone with the urge to comment one of these things could just… not do that
- why would anyone do that (lol this is Trump we are talking about, he just does insane things)
- why do you involve politics (just because some people can’t have rational debates doesn’t mean things are not political)
I also find this really interesting. Pirating Fedora would for sure be a pain, for example all the mirror servers wouldn’t be friendly Unis anymore but illegal bittorrent seeders?
Is the Linux desktop ecosystem made for such a situation? Like, are there package managers using bittorrent? this would be great tbh
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My feeling is that the biggest risks to linux from the Trump administration are legal challenges to open source licenses and a malware explosion stemming from the defunding of Federal security programs. Legal challenges may get further than in the past with judges appointed under Trump, and organizations opposing the challenges may struggle to meet costs, particularly if some judgement imposes exorbitant penalties.
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The GNU General Public License (GPL) is an open-source licence that allows developers to use, modify, and distribute software freely, provided that any derivative works are also licensed under the GPL. This licence does not inherently contradict U.S. export control laws, as it contains no provisions that explicitly violate such regulations. However, developers and distributors of GPL-licensed software must ensure compliance with all applicable export restrictions.
Under the Trump administration, there were efforts to increase control over open-source projects. One notable example was the restructuring of the Open Technology Fund (OTF), a key funding source for open-source initiatives. In June 2020, the leadership of the OTF was replaced with Trump-aligned individuals, jeopardising the funding and support of critical open-source projects.
Future scenarios under a renewed Trump administration could include greater regulatory oversight and restrictions on open-source software, particularly if national security concerns are invoked. This might result in limitations on the development and distribution of free software. Developers and distributors would need to ensure that their activities remain compliant with both the GPL and any heightened legal requirements, in order to avoid potential legal repercussions.
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Dear Valerie, at the very least, we should strive to treat each other with respect, even as the world around us grows ever more chaotic and hostile.
@vel178 This is a warning. We expect reciprocal respect among users and do not accept insults to one another. Please read the rules of this forum.
This topic is in the water cooler category. People can here engage in a wide scope of topics. If someone does not like a topic, they are free to ignore it. But once people start posting, they have to be excellent to each other, treat each other and each others’ opinions with respect and consider that this is a diverse community with many different thoughts, interests and opinions.
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Well, I think yes, but no.
If the USA would ban specifically and only the export of “Fedora”, then I suppose you could just transfer all the infrastructure to outside the US. I don’t think you would even have to “illegally export” the Fedora repository, because it is mirrored everywhere in the world already anyway, from the time before such a law. Red Hat would really have to find a way to move Fedora to a place in the world where it can be accessed by everyone and also still be “imported” into the US as the base for RHEL, because if Fedora contributors from outside of the US can not run Fedora themselves anymore, they would very quickly stop being Fedora Contributors, because how can you develop something you can’t even download (or however a “Fedora export ban” would manifest). Then, with a massive loss of contributors, Fedora would probably get so bad that we wouldn’t want to use it anyway.
If the USA would ban the export of “Linux Distributions”, then Red Hat would probably go under themselves, because they suddenly would loose all customers from outside the US. Also, many Red Hat developers are from the Czech Republic, so who knows if Red Hat would loose these employees as well. I think Red Hat struggling like that would be the end of Fedora as well. I suppose openSuse would replace Fedora and SUSE Linux Enterprise would replace RHEL outside of the US then, because SUSE already offers a smooth transition path from RHEL to SUSE via their SUSE Liberty Linux (pretty much just a drop in replacement for the RHEL repository, just that you get the updates from SUSE then instead of from Red Hat).
To be honest, I’m from Europe, and after last week, I am strongly considering moving away from Fedora and RHEL professionally. I am still undecided. On the one hand, I really like Fedora and RHEL. Both are great. RHEL is really a pleasure to work with and Fedora is just such a nice desktop experience and it’s nice that it is so similar to RHEL (or more like the other way around, but whatever). But with this massive uncertainty we get from the USA right now, I’m not sure if it isn’t better to get me some SUSE certifications instead of Red Hat for the future. I certainly wouldn’t blame any European company for trying to hedge against the risks that come with doing business with American companies, because there is just so much uncertainty with tariffs on, tariffs off, tariffs in all directions, then suddenly it looks like the USA is on Russia’s side, then it looks like they are even going to war against us over Greenland. And all of that in just a couple of days.
Anyway. Right now, I still enjoy using Fedora. It is still FOSS. It is still developed by people from all over the world. I’ll take a deep breath and think about if I should start to specialize more towards SUSE.
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Well written, Stephan,
I have exactly the same thoughts. Slightly off-topic, but here is a letter I sent to “The People’s Union USA” a few days ago:
"Dear Mr. … ,
first of all, I would like to congratulate you on your recent call for an “economic blackout.” Your initiative is a bold and inspiring step towards reclaiming economic power for the people.
At the same time, I want to share with you an important development happening here in Europe. More and more people, not only in Germany but across the continent, are beginning to boycott not just Amazon, but all major commercial providers headquartered in the United States. This is a direct response to the growing “America First” policy, which is increasingly perceived as a form of economic nationalism that disregards global partnerships and cooperation.
Here in Europe, we are determined to take this further and turn it into an “America Alone” movement. The awareness that economic dependencies can be shifted and that alternatives exist is growing. People are realizing that supporting local and regional businesses strengthens our own economies and makes us less vulnerable to economic and political pressures from abroad.
Your initiative aligns with a broader trend of economic self-determination. While your focus may be on empowering the American people, you may find it interesting that similar movements are emerging globally, driven by the need to break free from corporate dominance and geopolitical dependencies.
I wish you great success with The People’s Union USA and your efforts to reshape economic realities for the better. The world is watching, and changes are coming.
Best regards, …"
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It was inappropriate of me to post such a suggestive article. I sincerely apologize for that. I promise to do better and will delete my post here to calm things down.
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