[aclug-L] Re: There are still some monkeys in the CEO chair

["Jonathan Hall" <flimzy@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> Linux is just the Kernel and it is GPL.
> I am sure that in the days, years to come
> that RedHat Linux and other popular distros
> will drop the Linux and just call the OS RedHat, etc.
> and on the Product box it will say *with the Linux
> Kernel*.
> That is what makes Linux so powerful because anybody
> and any company can make apps and interfaces for
> it and it does not have to be GPL because you can use
> the LGPL to hook into the kernel libs.
> The success of Linux is because it is GPL'd
> and that it is not a clone.

The success of Linux is based on countless factors.  To say that Linux is a
success "because it's GPL'd" is a gross over-simplification.  I'd guess that
Linux would be as or nearly as successful if it had been released under the
BSD license.

To say that Linux's advantage is that it's "not a clone" (sic), is to say
that what gives Linux a strategic advantage, other options, like FreeBSD,
don't have.  I think this is simply not true.

If Linux hadn't come along, FreeBSD would be the big thing now, and everyone
would be excited about RedHat FreeBSD, SuSE FreeBSD, and Mandrake FreeBSD.
GPL has a few advantages (from the standpoint of developer contributions),
and I think that is what gave Linux the leg-up on FreeBSD.  But from an
"alternatives to Microsoft" standpoint, FreeBSD is just as valid an option
as Linux.  And most of the (relatively few) features Linux has today that
FreeBSD doesn't have would exist in FreeBSD if Linux didn't exist, because
the same developers would have been using FreeBSD instead.


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