Awesome Yaro

What is Linux?

What is it really?

If you answered "Linux is an operating system," then I would agree that this is correct. But, lets not forget, Linux is something more.

In the most strict of definitions, Linux is an operating system kernel. Though, I define operating system as something more accurate than most people define it as. The operating system is but one part of a grand equation of an entire computer system. An operating system is only that software in kernel space (Note how I exclude user space. I explain why later.) that manages processes, hardware, and resources. That includes the kernel, obviously, and the kernel is at the very heart of this layer of the computer system.

It also includes things like drivers and kernel modules.

As you may imagine, this means only things written specifically for the kernel, and will not ever work with any other kernel unless that kernel explicitly implements compatibility layers. Because of this highly specific nature, the operating system effectively takes the identity of the kernel. Linux is an operating system. So named because its kernel is called Linux.

But, that is not all of what I am getting at. What I'm getting at is the big picture, the picture most software companies that produce an operating system of their own overlook. The very secret to Linux's success that companies like Microsoft and Apple will never dream of understanding because they don't let their users into the actual developmental process.

I speak of openness, freedom, and community. The idea of information and process that can be shared and honed by a wide group of people as opposed to an individual or single closed group. Much is lost when you don't allow something to grow by the strength and interests of many people. People who need a thing that can be provided for and by other people. This threatens the prosperity of some very prosperous people. People who gained their riches through the exploitation of processes being closed and tightly controlled and held in secret. People who gained wealth through a fear of freedom of information and community.

These people want to control how we do our work. How we play. How we live. As when that happens, they can increase profits by holding them hostage to their own devices and lifestyles.

We in the Linux community have become well-accustomed to having the source code of our favorite software being available to us. We in the Linux community have become well-accustomed to being able to have something completely, to change and use as we desire. And nothing in this world will deny us the right to the freedom of sharing and community. It is what Linux and GNU are built off of.

Now, let me clarify a few things here. Before people write me off as some Free Software zealot I should explain my own position on Free/Open Source Software. I subscribe more to the Linus Torvalds style philosophy. I believe that there is no inherent evil or immoral value to proprietary or closed software. I use what best works for me. However, I have found that Free/Open Source Software works best. The quality is hard to deny. The efficiency and power of my software, written to share code with others, increases greatly.

So what makes proprietary software destructive has everything to do with how a developer treats their proprietary work of art. If they still listen to their customers, provide good testing, and not be evil and exploit a "limited" supply of their work, then I generally find no issue with them. It's when they realize that people want their products and try to experiment with a good way to profit from the scarcity and closed nature of their product that we have a problem.

In essence, proprietary software has to actively seek to break down the freedom of the user to be evil. It's one thing not to allow the user to freely copy and pass on the software. It's a whole other thing for the software's license to control the very precise usage of the product or how it is deployed or what can be deployed on it.

Recently Apple has declared war on Adobe in such a way it greatly hurts the community and freedom of its users. They have taken a clear stance against Flash, to the point that they have gone even further to prohibit their own users from using something other than a very select few languages and only one software development kit: Their proprietary Cocoa platform. Between this and a complete no-exceptions rule on the way users can install software on their Apple devices leaves me and many in the community livid to think about what Apple will do next.

Steve Jobs, in an open letter to the community, has told lies and half-truths, to convince us that their move against Adobe does not hurt the freedom or rights of their users. Let me warn those who would believe such things now how dangerous and deceptive Steve Jobs' claims about Flash are. Among many harmful lies and half-truths Steve Jobs falls under a very common trope of dishonest men who seek to dominate and control those who admire him:

He fell into the proverbial case of the pot calling the kettle black. So many things Steve Jobs tried to use against Adobe proved to be the same things Apple themselves have been doing, are doing, and will continue to do into the far future. One of them is the systematic restriction of Apple's platforms, chiseling away the freedom of their users as if they were useless undesired flotsam on some unexpressed masterpiece.

I implore the community, anyone who wishes to stand up for their freedoms. The freedom to share. The freedom to be open. The freedom to work together to improve an already great thing. The freedom to do what you please with what you have. Please. Please. Please. Let us not allow Apple to get away with this. Let us not allow Apple to continue to bind us, constricting our use and taking away more of our freedom. Many Apple users are unaware how much of a prison they are in, with Steve Jobs the warden.

Take back the freedom of the community, let Apple know we will not allow them to continue in this vein. That before long we will fight back against them if need be.

Above all else, stay free, everyone. Nothing can amount to the juggernaut that is our collaboration and cooperation in building something great.