More than 90 Australian companies have been asked to pay a licence fee for Linux software in a move apparently backed by Linus Torvalds. Letters demanding US$5000 for use of the Linux name were originally dismissed as a hoax. But according to the Sydney Morning Herald, Linus Torvalds is dead serious.
Yeah go with FreeBSD or any of the BSDs. the BSD license is what freedom is all about. screw linus and his rip-off unix like os.
fan
linux is not free any more?
The trademark applies to using the word “Linux” in a company or product name, so some bozo doesn’t come along and besmirch the name by creating a cruddy product.
This is not news. This has been done in the U.S. for years, and was praised at the time for being a way to keep the “Linux” mark from getting ridden into the gutter.
No need to worry. They’re talking about a different Linus Torvalds.
The article refers to some sort of king of ‘open sauce’.
Open Sauce? Is that like when the recipe is free for everyone to use and share?
I got your 5,000 right here Linus..
*Grabs Crotch and shakes it*
Here’s the LKML response from Linus:
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Here’s another Linus post (referenced in the first one) from the year 2000, which shows how old this whole non-news is, and also gives a good example of why this was done in the first place.
http://boudicca.tux.org/hypermail/linux-kernel/2000week04/0654.html
“But, for example, if your intent is to register “mylinux.com” (made up example, I don’t know if it is registered or not) only in the hopes of selling the domain name for mucho dinero later, then that kind of intent is not something I (or anybody else, I think) would find really acceptable, because now the use of “linux” in this case has really been a question of blocking somebody ELSE from using the term and using it to get money.”
That’s exactly what was going on before Linus registered the trademark.
http://kerneltrap.org/node/5581