Linux is not free software

Another recycled text, from November 2006, which I am including in this summer series of articles rescued from the LNDS archives. This one is actually the translation of a text by Linus Torvalds that matters because it clears up a lot about Linux’s relationship with the free software movement. The important thing is that Linus has always protected his rights over Linux, and in a pretty blunt and direct way.

Linus Torvalds and the FSF

I had been sitting on this translation of Linus Torvalds’s position on GPL v3 for days, and now I have finished it, so here goes another piece of translation work. The original in English is at: http://lkml.org/lkml/2006/9/25/161

The message is dated Monday, September 25, 2006, under the subject “Re: GPLv3 Position Statement”. Linus is replying to Michiel de Boer, who supported the current draft of GPL version 3, was disappointed that it would not be adopted as is, and asked about the kernel developers’ stance on DRM, Trusted Computing and software patents, and about holding a public poll. An excerpt from the original:

Well, you do have to realize that Linux has never been an FSF project, and in fact has never even been a “Free Software” project.

I personally have always been very clear about this: Linux is “Open Source”. It was never a FSF project, and it was always about giving source code back and keeping it open, not about anything else.

Thinking that Linux has followed FSF goals is incorrect. IT NEVER DID!

The rest, including the license terms from the Linux 0.01 release notes and what Linus thinks of DRM, is in the original message.