Who owns linux ?

[mushrooomprince]

Just a simple question, a simple answer would be nice.

[psyjax]

No one, and everyone  

[Stryker]

If I were to break the license agreement who would sue me?

[Stryker]

seems my link answered my question. in the first paragraph it says linus and others have copyrighted it, they'd have to be the ones to protect it... so linus and those who wrote it own it. so... I guess a lot of people own pieces of it.

[ October 14, 2003: Message edited by: Stryker ]

[mushrooomprince]

quote: n 1991 Finnish college student Linus Torvalds created an operating system for his own use  that used cheap PC hardware but provided the same capabilities as the expensive Unix systems he used at college. He made the new OS available on the Internet with source code, and protected it with a special license that allowed others to improve the software as long as the code remained visible and modifiable. In other words, open.

http://www.redhat.com/about/mission/linux.html

[Stryker]

I agree, it is open. But still owned. Glad you got your answer.

[flap]

quote:In 1991 Finnish college student Linus Torvalds created an operating system

No he didn't. He created a kernel.

And if "Every revolution was first a thought in one man's mind" then that man was Stallman, not Torvalds.

[mushrooomprince]

That document that you have stryker is a GPL. It means that the code is under the GNU GPL liscence, that means that the code is open source and free, and anybody else can use it. If you use it though, you have to make the parts of your program that use the open code also open source

[flap]

No, you have to distribute your *entire program* under the same licence, not just the parts that use GPL code.

[Stryker]

quote:Originally posted by mushrooomprince:
That document that you have stryker is a GPL. It means that the code is under the GNU GPL liscence, that means that the code is open source and free, and anybody else can use it. If you use it though, you have to make the parts of your program that use the open code also open source

you act like i dont know that, i've never argued that... i'm just saying that linux is owned.

(we had a debate earlier about wether or not linux was owned or not)

[hm_murdock]

stallman wouldn't have had shit without Linus making an OS kernel

[suselinux]

quote:Originally posted by Darth Jimmy James:
stallman wouldn't have had shit without Linus making an OS kernel

How about Hurd, or Like Debian is trying an Open BSD kernel with Debians version of GNU.

GNU is more important because it can use any number of kernels.

[M51DPS]

Why don't we just leave it as the community owns it? Or shares, it's not really owned. You can't steal it, because you already have it. It's yours, and everyone else's. Who owns an art form? It's true that people create certain pieces and are recognized for their work, but they're all just contributing to art as a whole. This is one of those questions where the easiest thing to do is come up with a new word or phrase . . . like Free Software . . .

[Stryker]

it can be left at that, but technically it's owned... that's what our debate was about earlier. I was being technical and he was following some article he read on some website.

[hm_murdock]

if by GNU, you mean all the UNIX crap... >yawn<

the Linux kernel is so better than that. why can't you guys ditch the tired old crap and move on?