this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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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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It seems that the Linux Foundation has decided that both "systemd" and "segmentation fault" (lol?) are trademarked by them.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Linux is the imposter here. Segmentation fault refers to how the PDP-(I forget) hardware organized memory. It comes from the original unix implementation which linux has never had any part of.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They aren’t satinf they have a trademark on the phrase ‘ segmentation fault’. They are saying the artwork called ‘segmentation fault’ contains a trademarked image/logo/whatever

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What is this segmentation fault logo or image? I’m not familiar with anything like that and searching for it hasn’t helped.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

we don't know, the post does not elaborate

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

x86 and x86_64 still have segment registers so it's not exactly entirely archaic, but they're not really relevant so that doesnt change what you said. I dont have the exact details on who implemented segmentation first, so I cant elaborate on that.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It doesn’t matter because trademark law is about usage and active protection of rights, not origination.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It does matter because projects like *BSD can prove continuous usage of the term. As such either the trademark is easy to break (it is common use), or it can only be a trademark in very specific contexts that are unlikely to apply.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Sure, what I was saying is that whether someone else created it in the 70s isn’t significant for trademark law. If multiple entities have been using it since then without claiming exclusivity would be significant.