Linux kernel is like 28mil lines of mostly driver and arch code. It’s open enough that you can basically use the code as it is to do what you please… There are limitations of course but the code is out there.

As it is the foundation and kernel ecosystem is seemingly pretty corporate friendly as it prob needs to be.

Are you worried that Linux might be attempted to be recooperated by capitalists somehow? It is a very valuable asset. I’m not sure how they could do it. Maybe they will try and make it more like corporate OSs… Or they will use their legal and sanctioning powers to prevent some people from using it how they would like.

  • Soviet Snake@lemmygrad.ml
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    2 years ago

    As far as I know, given how GPL works, they would need legal consent from every single person who contributed to the project in order to do something harmful, which is obviously pretty impossible given the number of contributions.

  • 小莱卡@lemmygrad.ml
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    2 years ago

    There is simply no way that Linux becomes propietary since everyone working on it is a FOSS advocate. If it becomes propietary the community will just fork it and continue developing it has happened with many other projects like OpenOffice->LibreOffice etc.

  • Not a fan of the Linux kernel containing proprietary code. There are FOSS-only variants (e.g. Linux-libre, or Debian’s kernel), but most distros don’t use them. On the other hand, the vast majority of hardware is also proprietary, and they could execute malicious code even on “libre” kernels.

    My main problem isn’t with the kernel itself, but the fact that Linux distros are being used to run proprietary code and that new users aren’t taught about FOSS. Last I checked, Ubuntu (still one of the most popular distros, AFAIK) allows users to install proprietary software in their “Software Centre”.

    What do you mean by “recooperate”? They can’t change the license of existing Linux code, and AFAIK they can’t make future code proprietary either, aside from drivers (etc.) that don’t need to link to the main GPL part of the kernel.