this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2023
75 points (85.0% liked)
Linux
48366 readers
1310 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
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Red Hat can't go closed source since the source they're distributing is released under the GPL. They're required to distribute code to anyone they distribute binaries to, and they can't stop anyone who has their code from redistributing it.
You are correct. They can however stop doing business with whoever is distributing their source, which makes getting new versions of the source harder.
This is what the dude selling „hardened“ versions of Linux is doing. Can’t remember the name and I don’t care to give him advertisement anyway, but he simply stops selling you new versions if you distribute old ones.
Grsecurity?
Yeah, that’s it.
There's a discussion about this on lwn (relevant part starting around this comment). My understanding is like @fayo said: you can pull this "trick" of releasing their source code, but only once (assuming they catch you).