The Linux Thread - The Autist's OS of Choice

[SchizoDaemon]

Ok so this was actually debunked in the 80s
I'll point you to a lecture I think everyone needs to watch about early Unix development and why stallman had to do what he did

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cj02_UeUnGQ&pp=ygUYQSBwb2xpdGljYWwgaGlzdG9yeSBvZiB4

Gpl didn't come into existence for no reason, people were either using proprietary licenses like Unix or permissive licenses which were then called copy-center as opposed to copyleft or copyright
The problem with this license people found was nobody wanted to collaborate on projects when businesses want proprietary software licenses. So the Gpl actually did prevent this and companies weren't just flippantly violating Gpl every time they needed gpled code, but they were doing that with permissive licensed software like bsd, and that has been a major problem for them that affects them to this day.

I am not talking directly about OS forks. I am talking about how in spirit it is subverted.

I am talking about what really happens today in the era where much of the software built today is web-based and built on AWS, GCP, Azure and the like.

Google isn't violating GPL if they run their own GPL fork internally on their servers. However, they can serve their own proprietary web applications that lock your data into their platform on that OS. So the freedoms of the GPL are subverted. How is the GPL protecting anyone's freedoms then? It isn't. More people probably use Google products than Microsoft products at this point, and their whole web presence is probably tied to their Google account; their office docs, their files, etc. are all in Google's proprietary cloud.

Furthermore, there are whole proprietary development platforms where the whole development model is to tie you into their platform. They do this by making you dependent on the design, data and how the data structures are stored. Much like web apps like Google Maps.

Jaron Lanier wrote a lot about how the design of systems is more important than the implementation using MIDI as an example in "You Are Not a Gadget" nearly 20 years ago.

The whole GPL vs BSD licence debate is completely moot at this point because large companies lock you into the data and the design of their systems.

It is another example of people fighting a war that was lost at this point over a decade ago.