Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Can Torvalds pull a "I'm taking my toys and going home"? (lemm.ee)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Can he? What would he be able to take and leave? What would that do to Linux?
This question has been on my mind for a long time, but never got around to asking it.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Free software doesn't have owners, that is kinda the point of free licensing.

Someone else would do whatever Linus does now. I am not sure what exactly that is nowadays. In fact it is already now the case that if he (or any maintainer of any FOSS) did a bad job maintaining it, someone else could step in, do a better job and many people would switch to that fork.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Not quite true. Code still has copyright owners and they are not bound by terms of free software licenses (they use licenses to allow other people to use their code). This means that copyright owner can make their code proprietary at any time, or change the license to any other. Although they can't do anything about previously released versions AFAIK.

However in case of projects with many contributors that don't have a CLA (which transfers an ownership to some organization) nothing can be changed in practice since every contributor owns their piece of code and will have to consent to the change of license. Linux is such a project so it will forever remain GPLv2 licensed.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

I know all of that. The "not have owners" wording was mainly a reference to https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-free.en.html