this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2024
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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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[–] biribiri11@lemmy.ml 10 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

It’s a good thing for the owners of the codebase, but often, a bad thing for the community (even if the community contributes to said codebase).

For example, FOSS maintainers sometimes will (want to) relicense to protect their income stream:

https://github.com/CaffeineMC/sodium-fabric/issues/2400

https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine/pull/150

While corporations might literally have maintainers sign away their rights so they can take the work from their own community:

https://lwn.net/Articles/937369/ (canonical requires a CLA, though this + the subsequent re-license might have happened anyway)

https://lwn.net/Articles/935592/ (RPM spec files are MIT licensed at the Fedora level. There are likely chnages to RPM files contributed by the community that are now source-restricted in RHEL)

https://networkbuilders.intel.com/docs/networkbuilders/accelerate-snort-performance-with-hyperscan-and-intel-xeon-processors-on-public-clouds-1680176363.pdf (See section 2.2. Previously, this work was BSD)

Mixed bag, really.