Fwd: Ubuntu's not GNU/Linux?

Gregory Zysk gmzysk at fedoraproject.org
Fri Apr 16 12:35:38 UTC 2010


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Gregory Zysk <gmzysk at fedoraproject.org>
Date: Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 2:22 PM
Subject: Re: Ubuntu's not GNU/Linux?
To: Sam Tuke <mail at samtuke.com>




On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 2:11 PM, Sam Tuke <mail at samtuke.com> wrote:

> I find it hard to believe that it is a licensing issue - many other
> commercial distributions mention Linux repeatedly on their websites (Suse,
> RHEL, Mandriva...), and if it were because of this then why would they be
> able to put it on other pages, and just not the front page?
>

It is a licensing issue when they cannot ship their distro and all of its
parts under the GNU/GPL. Certain proprietary components are not free to
modify and distribute unless cleared through the vendor and in the case of
flash that would be Adobe.

>
> Linux is a trademark (and I've gone through the sub-licensing process of it
> myself), but there is nothing stopping companies referencing it - "based on
> Linux", "a version of Linux" etc. are all acceptable references to the term.
>

I do not see the argument here. Linux as a product is different than that of
the GNU philosophy.

>
> Also GNU's opinion isn't relevant to Ubuntu's ability to refer to Linux as
> far as I can see - they have no rights to the word or its application; what
> power could they have to prevent an organisation from using it?
>

There is nothing preventing Canonical from building an operating system off
of the linux kernel. Many companies do that.

>
> I'm not aware of any good reason for Ubuntu hiding the fact that its based
> on GNU/Linux.
>

I do not think that they are trying to hide it personally, I believe that
Hugo's comment was right in the fact that they are trying to differentiate
themselves in the market rather than being another linux distro.

Greg

>
> > Sam,
> >
> > That is because they can't. It is about licensing. They ship non-free or
> > proprietary software with their distribution, such as Flash which
> prohibits
> > them from adhering to the 4 freedoms of the GNU philosophy. You can find
> > GNU's own stance on Ubuntu
> > here.<http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/common-distros.html>
> >
> > Gregory
>



-- 
Title: Fedora Ambassador Netherlands
User Homepage: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Gmzysk

PGP Fingerprint: 4643 E1AE 1AAD 85D4 6276
                        7C42 3591 A189 B8BF 04D6






-- 
Title: Fedora Ambassador Netherlands
User Homepage: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Gmzysk

PGP Fingerprint: 4643 E1AE 1AAD 85D4 6276
                        7C42 3591 A189 B8BF 04D6
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.fsfe.org/pipermail/discussion/attachments/20100416/8df91ef8/attachment.html>


More information about the Discussion mailing list