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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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What's with the move to MIT over AGPL for utilities? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I would understand if Canonical want a new cow to milk, but why are developers even agreeing to this? Are they out of their minds?? Do they actually want companies to steal their code? Or is this some reverse-uno move I don't see yet? I cannot fathom any FOSS project not using the AGPL anymore. It's like they're painting their faces with "here, take my stuff and don't contribute anything back, that's totally fine"

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago (2 children)

What's stopping people from doing that today is network effects. There are enough differences today between bsd coreutils and gnu coreutils that substituting one for the other doesn't work out of the box.

The chain of events that would cause a problem are: due to Ubuntu popularity rust MIT core utils overtakes gnu coreutils and people drop support for gnu coreutils, then a large and we'll funded corporate entity could privately fork rust coreutils and lock people in.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

To me, the problem is not really so much about "locking people in" (it's also unclear what you mean by that, if they were already using that ecosystem before using uutils aren't they already locked in?)

To me, the problem is how the MIT removes legal protections when it comes to ensuring accountability to changes in the source.. how can I be sure that the version of uutils shipped with "X Corp OS" has not had some special sauce added-in for increased tracking, AI magic, backdoor or "security" reasons? They are perfectly free to make changes without any public audit or having to tell their users what their own machine is doing anymore.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

I'm with you until the lockin. How does that happen?