this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2025
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Linux

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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.

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[–] maxwells_daemon@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Free as in "you're free to use the system, and tell it what to do", not only as in "you can use it for free".

If the only point for Linux was it being available for free, then just install Windows, open PowerShell and irm https://get.activated.win/ | iex

[–] Thaurin@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago

Free as in freedom has always referred to the availability of the source code and the power to make changes to it.

Yeah, but given it's an advertisement to get people into the gate, it's understandable why they'd focus on the "free as in no need to pay" aspect