Vaccine Passport company, “The Linux Foundation”, requires using their Vaccine Passport system for all Open Source events

The Linux Foundation — a trade organization founded in the year 2000 with the purpose of supporting, standardizing, and growing the Linux operating system — is rapidly putting their weight behind their new business venture: their COVID Vaccine Passport system. And sacrificing other portions of their business to do so.

The commitment level to their Vaccine Passport business is so high, that they are requiring 100% of all attendees at future events to not only be vaccinated against COVID-19… but also specifically use the Linux Foundation Vaccine Passport system.

With the rapid series of events, here is a chronological listing of some of what has transpired over just the last two weeks.

June 8, 2021 – The Linux Foundation gets into the Vaccine Passport Business

The “Global COVID Certificate Network” (GCCN) was founded on June 8th, by the Linux Foundation, with support from multiple companies, such as IBM.

The Linux Foundation now employs several staff members dedicated to this project.

“GCCN will establish a global trust registry network that enables interoperable and trustworthy exchanges of COVID certificates”

I discuss my personal opinions on this business change in an episode of The Lunduke Journal podcast.

June 10, 2021 – Linux creator yells at programmer who has COVID Vaccine concerns

Two days later, Linus Torvalds — creator of the Linux kernel project, and employee of The Linux Foundation — wrote the following in response to another programmer that expressed concerns around COVID Vaccines:

“Please keep your insane and technically incorrect anti-vax comments to yourself.”

“you’re spreading idiotic lies. Maybe you do so unwittingly, because of bad education.”

“Get vaccinated. Stop believing the anti-vax lies. And if you insist on believing in the crazy conspiracy theories, at least SHUT THE HELL UP about it on Linux kernel discussion lists.”

While the Linux creator has a long history of speaking in potentially inflammatory ways, the fact that this outburst occurred only two days after his employer announced a new business venture — and was aimed squarely at shutting down any concerns relating to that new business — is noteworthy.

June 15, 2021 – Linux Foundation requires usage of their Vaccine Passport system for all events

Five days after that incident, the Linux Foundation made the following announcement:

“After careful consideration, we have decided that the safest course of action for returning to in-person events this fall is to take a “COVID-19 vaccine required” approach to participating in-person.”

Their Frequently Asked Questions section of the announcement adds this additional detail:

Q: If I’ve already tested positive for COVID-19, do I still need to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination to attend in person? 

A: Yes, you will still need to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination to attend in-person.

This answer is particularly insightful. Those who can show proof of COVID-19 antibodies should, obviously, be on the same (or better) footing as those who have obtained a vaccination — at least based on all available data.

Which means… these requirements are not about stopping or slowing the spread of COVID-19.

What’s more, The Linux Foundation is actively encouraging people who have antibodies — and thus do not need a vaccination — to obtain an unnecessary medication which has, at the very least, a lower than normal level of testing.

This, in turn, means that The Linux Foundation is directly putting people in harms way… who do not need to be. Regardless of your personal stances on vaccinations in general, or the COVID vaccines in particular, this is reckless and dangerous. And completely destroys any narrative that this requirement is about “safety.”

Side note: This is not the first time The Linux Foundation has banned people from their events based on concerning criteria. Back in 2019, The Linux Foundation banned one attendee after a picture of the attendee wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat was posted on Twitter. I’ll leave it as an exercise to the reader if there is any relationship between the two events.

Why is The Linux Foundation doing this?

All of which begs the question… what is the motivation for this latest round of requirements?

From an outsiders perspective, it appears that this is an effort to promote their new Vaccine Passport business — a business that is already being banned in several states across the USA — at the expense of the existing Linux Foundation business.

Perhaps I’m wrong. If so, I encourage The Linux Foundation to reach out to me to clarify their goals and explain their strategy. I would be happy to publish such information or statements in full.