this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2023
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There's an entire operating system running most servers, smartphones, and embedded devices in the world right now that was created this way under a special license designed to promote code sharing and cooperation. It's famous enough that I probably don't have to mention it here. Anybody can use it, anybody can contribute.
You mean the one whose development is largely funded and directed by a very large mega corporation and which is almost exclusively deployed under license from that megacorp
Linux. I'm talking about Linux.
Okay. Fair enough with servers but I don't think saying that smartphones are running Linux is really descriptive. Android is a fork
Same kernel, different userland. Point is, Google benefited from code others wrote. Most without compensation from Google. That's what a fork is. And the license is sticky. Even if they fork it, Google simply cannot "un-GPL" parts of its code that were originally licensed under it. They have to make it available to others, legally.
Check your phone yourself. You'll find several mentions of open source licenses in the system info section.
Yeah, open source software is a thing. Not common in all markets but it's a thing. Open source hardware really is not