this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2025
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Linux

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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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[–] Jaypeach53@piefed.social 12 points 10 hours ago

Same old (50 years and more) M$ bullshit lies.

[–] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 20 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Active Directory and Exchange were both based on open source projects. Embrace, extend, extinguish is Microsoft’s whole jam.

[–] Mwa@thelemmy.club 2 points 3 hours ago

Now I get why rms recommends GPL or a copy left license for bigger projects.

[–] QuazarOmega@lemy.lol 3 points 6 hours ago

What were they?

[–] JTskulk@lemmy.world 37 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

This is clickbait. tl;dr a guy released MIT-licensed software, Microsoft forked and renamed it as they're legally allowed to do. Hell they could even close the source and sell it if they wanted to.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 27 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

That sounds less like clickbait and more an object lesson in the importance of copyleft to me.

[–] JTskulk@lemmy.world 12 points 13 hours ago

It's clickbait, the title implies that something wrong happened in this situation when no such thing occurred.

[–] brax@sh.itjust.works 14 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Forked it, renamed it, and changed nothing but the license on it.

What's stopping it from becoming the defacto version putting the original into the point where it's no longer worth maintaining, then Microsoft pulls it and sells it as a subscription service?

[–] JTskulk@lemmy.world 31 points 13 hours ago

Nothing, because the author explicitly chose to allow this kind of behavior. Paraphrasing one of the Youtube comments on the video: the author picked a cuck license and then got cucked, what a shock!

It's funny how apropos cuck really is here. We all recognize that a woman (Microsoft) cheating on her husband (the guy in question) is a bad thing, but we no longer view it that way when we learn that the man consented, video taped, and gets off to it. If you really want to stop this kind of thing, simply choose a better license like the GPL that forbids this behavior.

[–] deathbird@mander.xyz 11 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

I mean they should have given him credit. That's what they owe him (all they owe him) under the MIT license.

[–] QuazarOmega@lemy.lol 5 points 6 hours ago

They kinda did in the README, though that's not really how you comply with the license

[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 52 points 18 hours ago (3 children)

This came out a while ago. The developer used a license that said, "Steal this software, I don't care." Then he was shocked Pikachu when it was stolen.

His problem is the exact reason GPL was created.

[–] balsoft@lemmy.ml 0 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

While I'm usually all for Free software (as opposed to open-source software),

His problem is the exact reason GPL was created.

Nah, his problem is that Microsoft has much billions of dollars and so doesn't give a fuck about any licenses on projects by small developers. They simply ignored even the terms of the MIT license (which required MS to keep the original copyright notice, which they didn't). GPL would've done squat here since it also allows for forking (by design), but also because the US legal system is cooked, and people don't have many rights left when it comes to a dispute with a corpo.

[–] custard_swollower@lemmy.world 20 points 16 hours ago

Stolen? It was forked as is allowed by the MIT license. With GPL as well there is no „you cannot fork” rule, you can do exactly the same thing. The author misunderstood that „you have to push the changes to upstream”, which is not in any of those licenses.

[–] hummingbird@lemmy.world 34 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Poor license choice. If you really want to enforce it, don't rely on MIT.

[–] InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 22 points 18 hours ago

Certainly, but its worth highlighting why we use GPL and similar.

[–] mactan@lemmy.ml 11 points 17 hours ago

no license is safe, they have fuck you money and will win every time, but especially don't use MIT

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 12 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

They stole a lot others already. Winget was prior Appget, before they duped the inventor. And what was the case two months ago?

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 10 points 15 hours ago

I was going to mention DOS, but I looked it up in the hopes of not sounding like an idiot and it turns out the history is more complicated than I knew.