As you know, the RESTRICT Act says that it shall be illegal to use any software made by any company located in a country deemed a “foreign adversary.”

Did you know that Canonical makes a version of Ubuntu sanctioned by the CCP? It’s called “Ubuntu Kylin.”

And did you know that a Chinese company makes a Linux distribution – and an entire Linux desktop – called Deepin?

Just think.

If the RESTRICT Act is signed into law, downloading and using Ubuntu Kylin would be illegal. And this could also result in Ubuntu – as a whole – being banned in America. That would mean Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, and all OSes based on Ubuntu – such as Linux Mint, Trisquel, and Linux Lite – would be illegal.

Not only would Deepin Linux be illegal, but even the Deepin Desktoip Environment would be illegal as well, meaning that DDE spins such as “Ubuntu DDE Remix” would be illegal.

The RESTRICT Act says rhat all software must have government backdoors. If Linux Torvalds refuses to include government backdoors into the Linux kernel, then the government could ban ALL operating systems running the Linux kernel. (Perhaps this is why Google has created their own kernel for Fuchsia, the successor to Android and Chrome OS..) This would be the death kneel of the free software movement, as free software is definted by the FSF -and its founder Richard M. Stallman – as “free as in beer.” Software which is required to have government-mandated backdoors preinstalled goes against the very definition of “free as in beer” and goes against everything the Free Software Movement stands for.