this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2021
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Linux
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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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Yeah, Free Software licenses state that you have to be allowed to modify and redistribute the software. It does not state that you have to be allowed to call your fork the same as the original software.
And given that it is very much already good manners to not call your fork the same as the original, this trademark topic is only really relevant for distributions, when they want to apply custom patches (without renaming the software).