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this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2023
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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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Google is also one of the most prolific contributors to Linux, and was the #3 corporate contributor in 2022. If you're avoiding everything Google had a hand in you literally can't use any GNU/Linux.
It's almost as though the beauty of open source is that it doesn't matter who contributes, we all benefit from the result because we can all check each other's work and all use what we want
Google is perfect at getting rich by shipping disgusting 90% FOSS 10% Tracking software. Literally all their Android Apps are closed source tracking malware. AOSP gets nearly no attention. But yeah, good Platforms
Well, yes, the end products of GAFAM aren't designed to respect users' freedom, but rather to control them. That doesn't mean we can't extract the good parts of what they do and create user-respecting alternatives. Standard Android sucks but we have LineageOS and GrapheneOS, for example.
A tool, like any human creation, is imbued with the agenda of its creators. The freedom to share and modify the tool is what allows the community to override the initial creator's agenda. If free software comes with tracking malware the community will create a version without it. The community thus acts as a check against the power of the core developers.
This is why I'm against blindly rejecting anything that GAFAM has contributed to, as long as there is a freedom-respecting community version available.
Not to mention the Web itself. Google (and Apple and Microsoft) are major contributors to HTML as a standard.