Linux is Not a Community Project, It's a Wall Street Product
Let's focus on what matters (beyond labels and versions)
Putting aside community 'forks' (rather, sanitised derivatives) such as GNU Linux-libre and 6.17-gnu*, Linux is shunning developers and code that are not funded by or funding the Linux Foundation. They say that the code is "bad" or the developer is "rude". That's the ugly side of Linux, aside from the bloat, the Rust issue, abandonment of "legacy" hardware, and various other purely technical issues. The Code of Censorship is corporate.
Linux is replacing Apple. In most areas, Linux is replacing Microsoft, too (it's taking longer on laptops and desktops because Microsoft plays dirty on many levels). However, Google has just reminded us that Linux isn't freedom and Linux-powered Android may actively block freedom, even if you want freedom (F-Droid is besieged). Google is just a giant slop (plagiarism) company. To Google, Linux is just something to serve ads and slop with. They exploit and leverage other people's work; in the past they traded traffic for that work; now they just take away this work and rewrite it by bots, under the false guise of "intelligence".
To many companies, Linux isn't something to be loved or funded. It's just something to throw a dev or two at; to make Linux become a cheap or low-cost "commodity" (for some DRM appliance). That's what today's Linux is.
So when talking about software freedom let's not conflate that with "Linux". As Thomas Grzybowski put it 5 years ago: "Regardless of the etiology of the failure of the Free Software Foundation to promote the practices of Free Software other than the licensing, the consequences are severe. The Free Software Foundation remains the premier edifice for Free Software. This can continue on indefinitely, even as the institution itself becomes hollow, and the very concepts of software freedom become overshadowed by “Linux” and high-sounding platitudes. We would all probably be better-off if they simply folded their tent and let the GNU organization get on with the real movement."
This coming Saturday the Free Software Foundation turns 40. Its anniversary is vastly more important than any "Linux" birthdays; to GNU/Linux, the kernel is as important as X11, yet nobody seems to be celebrating the birthdays of X11.
The core goal should be freedom. Without it, "Linux" is just another Windows/MacOS but with another name or brand. █
* The announcement, which few people covered: (nobody paid to write about it)
Hello, everyone,
*flaps wings excitedly*
I'm Freedo, the spokespenguin for GNU Linux-libre.
Release 6.17-gnu is now available at:
git://linux-libre.fsfla.org/releases.git/ tags {scripts,sources,logs}/v6.17-gnu
Pre-compressed tarballs can already be found at:
- https://www.fsfla.org/selibre/linux-libre/download/releases/6.17-gnu/
You may soon find compiled releases at:
- https://www.fsfla.org/selibre/linux-libre/download/freesh/ (.deb)
- https://www.fsfla.org/selibre/linux-libre/download/rpmfreedom/ (.rpm)
# Cleaning up news
Adjusted deblobbing of amdgpu, prueth, iwlwifi, btusb, pci mhi host, adreno a6xx, nova-core, and Intel AVS.
Adjusted for pci hda drivers' moving upstream.
Cleaned up Intel IPU7 and assorted aarch64 devicetree files.
Dropped deblobbing of QLogic infiniband, removed upstream.
# Artwork
This release comes with artwork celebrating the 40th anniversary of the FSF and GNU's 42nd. https://linux-libre.fsfla.org/~freedo/#news
# Keeping in touch
Follow me in the Fediverse for fresh news about GNU Linux-libre. https://mastodon.social/@freedo
My tutors jxself and lxo are also on IRC: #gnu-linux-libre on libera.chat.
There's also a mailing list you're welcome to join: https://www.fsfla.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-libre
That was all, everyone. Be Free! with GNU Linux-libre.
*waves wings and goes off to celebrate anniversaries with cake*
# Rolling credits
What is GNU Linux-libre? ------------------------
GNU Linux-libre is a Free version of the kernel Linux (see below), suitable for use with the GNU Operating System in 100% Free GNU/Linux-libre System Distributions. http://www.gnu.org/distros/
It removes non-Free components from Linux, that are disguised as source code or distributed in separate files. It also disables run-time requests for non-Free components, shipped separately or as part of Linux, and documentation pointing to them, so as to avoid (Free-)baiting users into the trap of non-Free Software. http://www.fsfla.org/anuncio/2010-11-Linux-2.6.36-libre-debait
Linux-libre started within the gNewSense GNU/Linux distribution. It was later adopted by Jeff Moe, who coined its name, and in 2008 it became a project maintained by FSF Latin America. In 2012, it became part of the GNU Project.
The GNU Linux-libre project takes a minimal-changes approach to cleaning up Linux, making no effort to substitute components that need to be removed with functionally equivalent Free ones. Nevertheless, we encourage and support efforts towards doing so. http://libreplanet.org/wiki/LinuxLibre:Devices_that_require_non-free_firmware
Our mascot is Freedo, a light-blue penguin that has just come out of the shower. Although we like penguins, GNU is a much greater contribution to the entire system, so its mascot deserves more promotion. See our web page for their images. http://linux-libre.fsfla.org/
If you are the author of an awesome program and want to join us in writing Free (libre) Software, please consider making it an official GNU program and become a GNU Maintainer. You can find instructions on how to do so at https://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation. We look forward to hacking with you! :)
What is Linux? --------------
Linux is a clone of the Unix kernel [...]
(snipped from Documentation/admin-guide/README.rst)