Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 23rd Jul 2009 22:53 UTC, submitted by Remy Chi Jian Suen
So, Microsoft submits 20000 lines of code to the Linux kernel, all licensed under the GPL. Microsoft, who considers Linux a great threat, and once called the GPL a "cancer". Opinions on this one are flying all around us, but what does Linus Torvalds, Linux' benevolent dictator, think about all this?
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Member since:
2008-08-19
Good distinction. Yes, Free Software is very much an ideology - that's practically the entire point of Richard Stallman's years of campaigning, the idea that code *should* be free. Free Software is based on the idea that it's practically immoral for a user not to have the ability to modify the software they use. That's why the GPL has that 'viral' behavior - to absolutely discourage free code from being used by those who don't share that ideology.
And don't get me wrong - I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. But Free Software *is* ideology driven, and it's only a subset of open-source development. Personally, I'm mostly in it for practical reasons - because if someone has already done 90% of the work on something, it's a lot easier to contribute that last 10% than to do the entire 100% yourself...