this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2026
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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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You need to read about why RMS wrote the GPL in the first place. Yes obviously Imaginary Property is imaginary, but we have to exist within the legal system. RMS used the copyright system as a way to legally ensure the freedoms that copyright traditionally restricts, and that is why he calls it "copyleft".
Once you've reformed or repealed copyright law in some imaginary revolutionary future, you can use whatever code or material you want in your work and publish it freely as a derivative work, but until then you have to acknowledge the existence of the legal frameworks that we live in.
If we start filling our own FLOSS-licensed codebases with code of unknown provenance we open ourselves to legal challenges, it makes the entire license unenforceable, and it destroys the share-alike ecosystem that we've built over the past 35 years.