this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2024
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Linux

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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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Is Linux not free software itself? I thought propietary stuff was added downstream.

Am I getting something wrong?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Linux itself is Libre on its own, but its modular and anybody can add non-libre software/drivers to it. Android is a popular example to see what that means. But to be fair, I don't understand why Linux-libre exist. These projects would remove proprietary software from Linux. It's a script, so maybe its intended to be used with any Linux Kernel you have, that comes with proprietary blobs? In that case the project makes very much sense to me.

But as you I am not educated enough to understand all of this.

Edit: Found the script, so you can look at what it does to understand its purpose better: https://www.fsfla.org/svn/fsfla/software/linux-libre/scripts/deblob-6.9