Feel bad for the average Joe over there.
Nvidia blocks access to video card driver updates for users from Russia and Belarus.
Submitted 6 months ago by Dot@feddit.org to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/10/24/7481153/
Comments
Dasnap@lemmy.world 6 months ago
gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
Be that as it may, this is very much part of the intent of the sanctions. Creating popular dissent and dissatisfaction within Russia due to Putin’s insistence on carrying out a war of aggression is very much by design. This is the Second Cold War. We’re in it.
nialv7@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Sure… Their anger will be directed at Putin, not at who actually imposed those sanctions.
I am worried that these sanctions will make them band together and support Putin even more.
levzzz@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Really sucks though that 90% of war supporters are brainwashed/indoctrinated anyway
GhiLA@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
Nvidia is a western lie, comrade. You don’t need it.
Vilian@lemmy.ca 6 months ago
It was a joke why you’re being downvoted lol
sorval_the_eeter@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I feel bad for the average Joe in Ukraine, and I dont feel any need to pity Russia or Russians at all.
Lettuceeatlettuce@lemmy.ml 6 months ago
We are entering the era of cyber-warfare, nation-state counter hacking, software and hardware sabotage, underground black and grey markets for both hardware and software.
Sanctions now include software and access to networks, not just hardware imports and generic VPN region locks.
Nations are taking more control over their national network infrastructure, China has shown it’s possible to almost completely isolate a modern technological nation of a billion people in their own intra-net with near full visibility and control into everything their citizens say and do.
Other nations are following, and big tech will always play into whatever is the most profitable, which is why companies like Google and Apple will turn a blind eye to the authoritarian governments and comply with their controls in order to gain more market share.
Now let me be clear; fuck the Russian war machine, fuck it hard and fast, and fuck Putin and his pathetic removed bois that support him. But I feel for the Russian people who are oppressed, there is a deep hacker and FOSS culture that has been there since the 80’s, shame that they are getting screwed by their shitty regime, much like the citizens of China, especially gen-Z having terms like “lying down” banned because it opposes their oppressive and abusive work culture.
Open software and hardware is under attack more and more lately. From the capitalist corpos who hate anything they can’t generate insane profits from and that gives workers and end users control over their data and privacy. It’s also under attack from the government neo-liberals and right-wingers because it allows people to be private and safely express their opposition, and also allows easy organizing of mass protests against their abuses of power.
What a precious thing we have in the world of FOSS. The spirit of human collaboration and free expression, across cultures, races, genders, and ages is so incredible, but we must defend and support it.
Fuck Capitalism, fuck copyright, and FUCK war.
squid_slime@lemm.ee 6 months ago
Hell yea brother
Laser@feddit.org 6 months ago
We are entering the era of cyber-warfare, nation-state counter hacking, software and hardware sabotage, underground black and grey markets for both hardware and software.
We have entered that territory at least 10 years ago.
The rest I agree with. But I also think this is in fact the right move: you need to create pressure that hurts both the leadership and the people.
bigFab@lemmy.world 6 months ago
What would you personally do with that pressure if you lived in Moscow? At best get beaten in a protest.
Crafter72@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I wish Free/Libre movement (as not to be limited only to FOSS and OSHW) to stay away from getting too political. Sure perhaps because their contributors mostly coming from westerner but lately things get piggybacked by nonsense stuffs (Debian wtf?). For truly Free/Libre there should be no border and everyone welcome to contribute instead of artificial reasoning because someone above them have to comply with this-that or whatever the heck the agenda are.
meneervana@lemm.ee 6 months ago
Amen
Roflmasterbigpimp@lemmy.world 6 months ago
“To access the update, please overthrow your government”
xavier666@lemm.ee 6 months ago
“have you tried restarting your government?”
vxx@lemmy.world 6 months ago
“Does nobody think of the people?” they asked while putin sends his citizens into a certain death.
Nalivai@lemmy.world 6 months ago
And for the crime of being send to death they should be punished by not having the newest divers. That’ll show them.
bigFab@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Exactly. Those russian CS gamers are the worst scum in the world and deserve to be (cybernetically) wacked.
Cyberjin@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Why now? Does it actually do something?
rottingleaf@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Must prevent them from training drone operators on PC’s with Nvidia. Of course there’s no other way they can get those drivers. The program is operated by 10yo sim players. They won’t be able to use Tor or VPNs or proxies. This is a very smart plan to optimize manpower, but Nvidia is smarter. Smarrrrt!
stupidcasey@lemmy.world 6 months ago
If, I have learned anything from YouTube it’s that if a multi trillion dollar international mega conglomerate doesn’t want you to have it, no matter how impossible it may seem they can stop you from getting it they just need enough market incentives.
This could just be one small step in a much larger plan or it could be placating the United States government whose to say.
Sabata11792@ani.social 6 months ago
Some tech scantions from when the war started went into effect. Allowing access to Russians is now a complicated legal risk. Even the Linux was forced to block devs.
Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Weird timing
zante@slrpnk.net 6 months ago
Yes, especially in light of the Linux thing this morning
r00ty@kbin.life 6 months ago
Yeah, along with this I am suspecting there's been a "suggested interpretation" from western governments to large orgs.
Adm_Drummer@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I’m OOTL. What Linux thing are you talking about?
ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net 6 months ago
I don’t think so. It’s been making the tech waves for the past year. My company went department by department, ensuring we clean up. I’m guessing it’s never been newsworthy enough for the average person.
CommanderCloon@lemmy.ml 6 months ago
Everyone has a VPN or can use proxies extremely easily nowadays, especially in Russia. Literally all this does is creating a precedent of a parts manufacturer (““manufacturer”” in the case of nvidia), and y’all are cheering because “fuck russians”.
All this does is creating this bad precedent while accomplishing exactly nothing
x00z@lemmy.world 6 months ago
And now some Russians get mad a the corrupt Putinlord because his actions have consequences and they have to go trough all kinds of hoops to get it.
Sometimes the annoyance is important too.
CommanderCloon@lemmy.ml 6 months ago
Putin only exists because Russians resent the west after having been sidelined despite foregoing communism (which Gorbachev did in the hope that Russia would be able to join, and benefit from trade with, the liberal bloc)
If you think they’ll resent Putin and not the west for every minor (and some major) annoyance brought by sanctions, you are ignoring decades of policies done in the same spirit and resulting in the exact opposite of the intended effect. All this does is demonstrate to the Russians that the west is indeed their enemy, and thereby reinforce Putin and the likes of him.
All sanctions do is target innocents and reinforce whatever government the US is supposedly targeting. See literally every single country sanctioned by the US.
fluxion@lemmy.world 6 months ago
They should give access to one last update that displays “Fuck Putin” on your screen at all times
pastermil@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
That sounds good and all, but the ones aho are really affected are the powerless people.
tal@lemmy.today 6 months ago
Most sanctions, aside from ones aimed at individuals, are going to have indirect effect. That is, they will produce pressure on Russia in aggregate, and that means that they’ll impact the typical citizen.
But that being said, there have been a lot of sanctions applied, and…the impact on Nvidia drivers isn’t, I think, really a huge one relative to those. Like, things like cutting off access to all kinds of electronics parts and payment system access and stuff are going to be, I’d say, a lot more impactful to a typical person in Russia, even if the impact is secondary.
Vilian@lemmy.ca 6 months ago
That’s the objective or they learn to overthrow their shit leader of they don’t get western tech
MehBlah@lemmy.world 6 months ago
How to do nothing while appearing to.
Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 6 months ago
Oh nyoo, they’ll have to use the open source ones!!
/s
(And the open sauce nVidia drivers got actually completely viable, great effort & results)ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 6 months ago
They could still just download the official drivers straight from the NVIDIA website
tal@lemmy.today 6 months ago
Did NVIDIA stop selling videocards in Russia?
kagis
pcmag.com/…/nvidia-to-stop-all-product-sales-to-r…
Nvidia Stops All Product Sales to Russia
March 5, 2022
I don’t think that it matters a huge amount, since companies are just gonna re-export them out of China or Kazakhstan or wherever. I mean, it’s not like the hardware has some kind of region-locking. It’s a piece of consumer hardware, sold and resold anonymously all over the place. It’s not some kind of specialized military hardware.
kagis
hardwaretimes.com/nvidia-loses-just-2-of-its-reve…
In October [2022], NVIDIA officially shut down all its operations in Russia as sales of both data center and consumer graphics cards were wrapped up. At the time, around 240 employees worked for the Santa Clara-based company. These folks were given the option to either relocate abroad or look for other jobs.
Furthermore, NVIDIA hardware has been banned from sale via official channels.
Fortunately for Team Green, the Russian Federation represented a minor market for its wide portfolio. Disclosures from the Q3 2022 earnings report indicate that the Federation accounted for just 2% of its revenue and 4% for the gaming business.
Although channel partners are forbidden to sell the latest GeForce RTX 40 series graphics cards, Russian gamers can still procure them from the grey market.
It’ll probably add cost and some risk of getting ripped off and no manufacturer’s warranty, but I would be surprised if someone who wanted a new GPU couldn’t continue to get ahold of one in Russia, given the funds.
hark@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Now do israel.
bigFab@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I thought of that too, but then realized they need the latest graphic card updates to run Google, Amazon and Microsoft mass-surveillance applications!
pineapplelover@lemm.ee 6 months ago
Some of you may rejoice in unison because of this but this creates a dangerous precedence for other countries. At any time Nvidia can just brick computers at whichever country they decide to. This situation shouldn’t be taken lightly.
McDropout@lemmy.world 6 months ago
The average Lemmy user operates with „USA good, Russia bad, Democrats good, Republicans ban, especially Trump TERRIBLE BAD“ so you‘ll be downvoted
But 2020-2024 showed us that United States of North America have no moral compass. And any North American company will do whatever it needs to in order to support the military industrial complex and the interests of North America.
Then North America will claim that they “care about human rights”.
pineapplelover@lemm.ee 6 months ago
That’s probably why I’m getting downvoted. Users who are downvoting, feel free to elaborate. The way I see it Nvidia can just brick all the computers in [insert some of your favorite countries] and nobody will really stop them.
SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 6 months ago
Just buy an AMD card and use linux.
pineapplelover@lemm.ee 6 months ago
I do lol.
But now you’re forcing an entire country to use AMD and Linux, while ignoring the main issue. Pretty much one of the biggest computer companies who have their fists on a good chunk of our nation’s balls, and can choose to squeeze them at any time.
squid_slime@lemm.ee 6 months ago
My heart goes out to those Russians who have been patiently waiting for S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 to release and now they face the very real scenario that S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 just won’t run. After years of delays this will hit hard. Putin himself has been posting regularly about S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2, begrudged by so many delays and his mother bought him the version with all future DLC’s included.
I hope Nvidia feel real fucking good about them selves knowing they’ve taken away a dictators dream.
Stalinwolf@lemmy.ca 6 months ago
Putin belongs in Yantar like the swamp-fuck he is.
squid_slime@lemm.ee 6 months ago
Lol too true. What faction would Putin pick?
morrowind@lemmy.ml 6 months ago
Am I going crazy or is that the framework ceo in that stock photo?
SomethingBurger@jlai.lu 6 months ago
Nirav Patel
He used to work at nVidia, so this is very possible it’s him. They do look very similar.
CaptainBasculin@lemmy.ml 6 months ago
Damn, that’s fucked.
InverseParallax@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Yeah, but so are Russians, so it works out.
imposedsensation@lemmynsfw.com 6 months ago
Why bother when these blocks are so easily circumvented with VPN?
twinnie@feddit.uk 6 months ago
VPNs are banned in Russia to make sure they don’t accidentally get inaccurate information about the special military operation.
andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
They aren’t legally, but many sites to get them (besides market apps) are not easily accessible and payment is not easy.
selokichtli@lemmy.ml 6 months ago
That will show BRICS countries what not to buy.
Leate_Wonceslace@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 months ago
Tankie detected.
selokichtli@lemmy.ml 6 months ago
You can try again. Take all the attempts you need.
taanegl@lemmy.ml 6 months ago
Cus they can’t access SWIFT, ofc they can’t buy.
Besides, China is working on their own GPU/NPU/ASIC production line.
Russia (vassal state) x China (dommy mommy state).
TriflingToad@lemmy.world 6 months ago
wow you really owned them. Good job, Nvidia.
geography082@lemm.ee 6 months ago
This has no sense
roofuskit@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Sucks to suck.
andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
There aren’t many uses where discrete v-cards are needed now and where integrated won’t be enough. Machine learning, content editing, engineering and science, mostly. So besides making purchased v-cards less effective or useless, it aims at top consumers, industry, may it be media or production facilities, including MIC. Ah, and gamers, the most opressed minority.
metallic_substance@lemmy.world 6 months ago
What in the world are you talking about? This just simply isn’t true
tal@lemmy.today 6 months ago
Yeah, I was gonna say…GPUs have to be more significant today for general compute than they’ve ever been.
Okay, yeah, maybe you don’t need one for CAD acceleration in 2024, but that has to be a vanishingly small thing compared to parallel compute on stuff like AI work.
andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
Intel and AMD chips can support youtube and office apps themselves alright. It is 90% of casual PC usage for home setups and office usage. V-card drivers and discrete v-cards are not required for most people. Is that wrong?
Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 6 months ago
they gonna stop the mirror operators that reside outside those areas yet serve them?
werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 6 months ago
They will just come up with a new Runix OS with Ruvidia drivers. It might be like the time the Germans invented modern rocketry, the pulse engine and the turbine engine.
It’s relatively bad news maybe. Same in China.
InverseParallax@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I’m sure they’ll try, just like they tried to copy IBM mainframes, the IBM pc, the Apollo program, and nuclear power.
They’re too stupid to do it, you see, all the smart soviets who were capable of thinking were from Ukraine, which is why they’re designing Hunter killer drones in a cave with a box of scraps.
Russians without Ukrainians can’t invent anything, which is why the t14 and su57 aren’t in Ukraine, the semhat exploded on the pad (which would be hilarious if it had a payload), and they’re just generally pathetic failures at everything else.
werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I sure hope this is the case. I know for sure that China will try very hard to develop technology as the world sort of closes access to high tech. I assume Russia will try too. Unfortunately that’s how innovation happens sometimes. Extreme limitations lead to extreme efficiency if the other option is total failure.
Mistic@lemmy.world 6 months ago
UPD: as of right now, the access isn’t blocked in any way.
It is still unclear whether or not the block was intentional, Nvidia gave no comments.
psycho_driver@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Hacker sanctions are finally real.
Kyrgizion@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Pretty much for form I suppose, there are other ways to get those drivers.
I’ve been in a few online games with RU players and it struck me as so weird to be playing a game with someone from a nation we are basically at war with. Major WWI Xmas football vibes.
kamen@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I feel that many Russians are against Putler’s regime, but are (rightfully so) too afraid to speak up.
BaroqueInMind@lemmy.one 6 months ago
You are wrong. more than half are in favor of the war in Ukraine.
They all can go fuck themselves.
misk@sopuli.xyz 6 months ago
It’s not that they’re for or against. They don’t care.
Vilian@lemmy.ca 6 months ago
Nah, propaganda is a hell of a drug
sorval_the_eeter@lemmy.world 6 months ago
“Wish into one hand and shit into the other and see which one gets full first.”
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Not only will they have back doors, but they’ll be screening for shittier updates and working on hacks that liberate the hardware from proprietary software updates.
Beginning to feel like the good old Internet Wild West over on the eastern internet.