this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2021
40 points (93.5% liked)

Linux

49799 readers
1118 users here now

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.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] F4rtEmp3r0r 2 points 3 years ago

As far as I know the goal of Debian is not to attract the most users but a certain set of values.

The Debian Free Software Guidelines explicitly prohibits discrimination of the people who use their software regardless as to what their values are. They are writing software in the public interest which presumably means that they want the public to use it. Other than ensuring those who use the software are abiding by the license it's licensed under there is nothing the project can do in terms of selecting who uses it.

If RMS is incompatible with these values

The values of free software? I think over the course of his entire life he's demonstrated that he's entirely committed.

Debian is political

I agree, but the only politics that really matter are those of computing freedom for all.