Reading about FOSS philosophy, degoogling, becoming against corporations, and now a full-blown woke communist (like Linus Torvalds)
this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2023
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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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https://moneyinc.com/linus-torvalds-net-worth/
Well, that's one definition of being communist, I suppose. Myself, I think that it's fairly safe to say that Torvalds is okay with private ownership of industry.
People may have read this and got too excited. He just believes in socially left policy. He's probably not a communist.
I don't know about his political views, but I think Linus deserves every last penny he got from Red Hat.
I'm no communist, but your argument is flawed.
Linus is not representative of the Linux community and I think the famous Stallman rant regarding GNU/Linux is actually relevant here.
The free software movement is certainly pretty left leaning, though I wouldn't call them communist.
OP's words.
Mr. Parenti, are you a Marxist?
Parenti: This is my answer. I would wear that label proudly if I knew that you understood what I meant by Marxist. And when someone says: 'You're a Marxist now aren't you?' and their only intention is to give a buzzword which says 'this guy drinks the blood of capitalist children' or something, then I'm going to say no, I'm not your label, I don't particularly want your label.
[...] Look, I wrote the book about the media. I don't know what Karl Marx has to say about 20th-century US media, I think he had very little to say because you know... he left early. But there's been a lot of creative thought and scholarship in Marxist literature and I feel that it's a scholasticist thing [to say]: 'Oh, you took your [Marxist] formula and applied it here....'
See, I don't see these things this way because I'm a Marxist. it's just the opposite. I started seeing these things and I started realizing that there was an analysis that had explanatory power for that. It gets very frustrating you know. For years I'd knock myself out trying to make an analysis, I'd come to the conclusion and I'd say: 'Hey you know, the police are not neutral, they're on the side of property and power.' Then someone would say to me: 'That's Marxism, you know, you're sounding like a Marxist.'
That's Marxism... oh. Then I'd say: 'Wealth is largely unaccountable in many of the things it does in our democracy, I don't understand, that isn't what I learned ... ' / 'Oh that's a Marxist point of view, Marx said that you know.' and it would go on, one thing after another and I said:
'Boy, this Karl Marx was really something, you know, every time I put two and two together and come up with an analysis they give him the credit for it.'
OP is referring to Linus Torvalds' half-sarcastic quote.
Tell me you haven't read the Communist Manifesto without telling me you haven't read the Communist Manifesto.
There's a gaping and dangerous misunderstanding in there. Having money or being successful under capitalism doesn't mean you don't see its flaws. The idea that rich people can't be communists is like saying that only gay people can support gay rights.
Believing that the world would be a better place if we pooled our resources has nothing to do with whether you created an operating system that all of global computing relies on.
I don't even think the meme is about communism as much as it is just venting about how corps turned free-software into the panopticon it is today.
But Idc if Torvalds is a Marxist bc I'm not either, but marx wrote about how the proletariat should own stocks, so that isn't even disqualifying tho.
And tbh I think most "marxists" just adopt that term because our political discourse is so corrupted that anyone who thinks that we shouldn't curb-stomp an Amazon employee for wanting a bathroom break is treated like they're Mao anyway.
I had to look up the panopticon reference, so I thought to share with others: 'A proposed prison of supervision, so arranged that the inspector can see each of the prisoners at all times without being seen by them: proposed by Jeremy Bentam.'