Re: @UMNews / Linux Kernel security fiasco. I am a UMN alum, frequent OSS contributor, co-founded the LF projects @CHAOSSproj and @AugurLabs, and am a frequent speaker at @linuxfoundation events. I know and trust the faculty at UMN. #NeverAgain https://t.co/1JbY6SQarY
— Dr. Sean P. Goggins (@sociallycompute) April 22, 2021
Open Source Software runs the core infrastructure we all use everyday, the University of Minnesota trains countless graduates in a top tier computer science department, and the Linux Foundation is a significant shepherd of great ideas in open source software. The Linux Foundation, and the University of Minnesota are two of the organizations I hold in extraordinary high regard. Since something happened yesterday, and I feel strong ties to friends in open source, and friends at the University of Minnesota, I felt like I wanted to highlight the general greatness of each while making assorted other, more random (though possibly Nobel Prize winning) comments.
I made a few statements on Twitter about a bit of a fiasco yesterday, involving research from my graduate school Alma Mater, Minnesota Gophers, and my professional friends at The Linux Foundation. Briefly, potential security bugs were introduced into the Kernel as part of a Research project. The details are super techy, and the work should not have been done the way it was done, IMHO. Suffice to say:
A. Minnesota’s CS department is top tier, I have many friends there, and this is absolutely not how my friends there roll. We are talking international leaders in their computing fields. My friends at Minnesota are leaders in their fields, and really good people.
B. The Linux Foundation has advanced open production, and the technology sector of our economy as much as any other organization. My friends at the Linux Foundation are really good people, and leaders in their fields.
C. Minnesota’s mistake will not be repeated. I trust that completely. The signatories on the letter in my Twitter feed are two of the highest character humans I know. And that says a lot for Matt’s, who really pissed me off by letting my 98 in software engineering stand as an A- (IMHO, because I was caught red handed satirizing the faculty member who taught it. I can be an Asshole) my first semester in grad school. He was right. It’s one of many ways I have observed the integrity of Loren and Matt’s in action.