this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2023
1215 points (84.3% liked)

Linux

47955 readers
3007 users here now

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.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Reading about FOSS philosophy, degoogling, becoming against corporations, and now a full-blown woke communist (like Linus Torvalds)

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 106 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Context for those who are baffled (I was)

https://news.itsfoss.com/linus-torvalds-woke-communists/

No Linus hasn't grabbed a red rag and isn't off to foment revolution

[–] AnUnusualRelic 35 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I liked the take by the utterly clueless Polish guy in the comment. I think his complete lack of understanding of any context is quite typical of online political conversation, especially when semantics come into play.

Also Linus did call for "Total world domination" (I have the tshirt).

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (7 replies)
[–] Zehzin 83 points 1 year ago (12 children)

The Linux to trans anarchocommunist catgirl pipeline is very real. The moment you move to Arch it's already over.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago

I'm feeling called out

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I just installed pop!_os am I safe?

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago

that's how I started. nobody's safe.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (10 replies)
[–] [email protected] 59 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (20 children)

rant:

I have been using Linux since 2006, a lefty and against the super-rich and big corporations since I remember (to the point of avoiding their products like the plague), also never having understood or accepted gender roles and other stupid traditional concepts, yet never turned into a communist 🤷

It baffles me that so many people think that respecting gender equality, understanding the evil in big corporations and avoiding them, valuing community and being tolerant (except for intolerance) and against discrimination somehow equals communism... I say this because I've been called a communist by many people who know me, while I have always rejected it explicitly!

/rant

load more comments (20 replies)
[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Linus Torvalds is a "full-blown woke communist"? Citation needed.

I have been a FOSS enthusiast since my preteen or early teenage years (mid-to-late 2000s), yet I am not in any sense a communist.

[–] RegalPotoo 49 points 1 year ago (4 children)

"full-blown woke communist" is US-speak for "Scandinavian socialist"

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago

The term you want is social democrat, which isn't socialism but hey, it tries to like, stop people starving to death on the street, if only because it looks ugly.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

Nah literally anyone who advocates for basic human rights is a "full blown woke communist".

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I now love Debian more than I previously thought possible.

brb installing Debian on all my hardware.

edit: there's a fortune-anarchism too, amazing.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Wogi 40 points 1 year ago (2 children)

ITT: people who have no idea what communism is

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] citrusface 38 points 1 year ago (2 children)

...I just didn't want windows advertising to me.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Fine, but dont defend tyranical regimes. They are bad no mather who they say they read. They could could claim to be following the teachings of fucking Mr Roggers but if they have concentration camps then thats not utopic or very humanitarian in my opinion, specially if ther is some mad dictator in power with everything no matter how manny extra steps are in between.

load more comments (7 replies)
[–] thebrownhaze 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

https://moneyinc.com/linus-torvalds-net-worth/

How Linus Torvalds Achieved a Net Worth of $150 Million

Red Hat and VA Linux went public, and since they acknowledged it would not have been possible without the programmer, Torvalds received shares reportedly worth $20 million. Before it went public, Red Hat had allegedly paid Torvalds $1 million in stock, which the programmer claims was the only big payout he received.

He revealed that the rest of the stock Transmeta and another Linux startup awarded him were not worth much by the time he could sell them. However, in the case of his Red Hat stock, it must have been worth his while because, in 2012, Red Hat became the first $1 billion open-source company when it reached the billion-dollar mark in annual revenue.

Whether he exercised his stock options is unclear, but the money he makes from the gains could be the reason why his net worth has continued to soar.

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.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago

People may have read this and got too excited. He just believes in socially left policy. He's probably not a communist.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago

I don't know about his political views, but I think Linus deserves every last penny he got from Red Hat.

[–] nadir 19 points 1 year ago (3 children)

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.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

Tell me you haven't read the Communist Manifesto without telling me you haven't read the Communist Manifesto.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Literally same, even the years match up lol

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (18 children)

Fuck communist statist, foss is pure anarchism.

[–] ZombieMantis 46 points 1 year ago (3 children)

My ~~brother in Christ~~ Comrade in the revolution, Communism is a stateless, moneyless, classless society. Whatever self-proclaimed "Statist Communists" thare are, are no-more Communist than the National "Socialists" who sent our kind to the death camps.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Anarchism does not necessarily exclude Communism! :)

Good Explanations: https://www.anarchistfaq.org/afaq/index.html for those interested

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (16 replies)
[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I too just turned into a Marxist after finding out about Linux and software freedom in 2020 lol

I think there might be more than a handful of us. Welcome, comrade.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (11 children)

What? These things are not related to each other by a good margin. In fact, since the FOSS is completely orderless, it goes against communism; which requires some sort of order just to be able to function. But either way, the parallel is not there or questionable at best, not to mention irrelevant.

Can we NOT drag useless politics into FOSS?

load more comments (11 replies)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Wow. Im pretty centerist on capitalism and I have been using linux since about 2000 or so.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›