What you’re referring to as Linux is actually Uutils/Linux…
this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
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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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Stevchard Jollman is making me really uncomfortable.
It's supposed to be Richmark Shuttleman
While shifting to Rust might be a good idea for improving safety and performance, adopting the MIT license represents a fundamental change that will enable large tech companies to develop and distribute proprietary software based on the new MIT-licensed Core Utilities. This shift moves away from the original vision of the project which was to ensure that the software remains free and open as enshrined in the GPL's copyleft principles. The permissive nature of the MIT license also will increase fragmentation, as it allows proprietary forks that diverge from the main project. This could weaken the community-driven development model and potentially lead to incompatible versions of the software.
This is stupid,, businesses just use busybox and move on.
Nobody is freaking out that their smart toaster doesn't have the full version of troff.
Open source has been captured and corporatized.
But Ubuntu has always been extremely corporate.
That doesn't mean we should make it easier for them, if anything that means we need a V4 of the GPL that addresses and combats that
Do large tech companies contribute a lot to the GPL coreutils?
Yes, they do. The GPL's copyleft clause requires companies to release the source code of any modifications they distribute, ensuring contributions back to the community. The MIT license, however, allows proprietary forks without this obligation. In other terms, the MIT license is effectively permitting companies to "jump out" of the open-source ecosystem they make use of.
I know, but do they? Has big tech contributed to the code base significantly for coreutils specifically? sed and awk or ls has been the same as long as I remember, utf8 support has been added, but I doubt apple or google was behind that.
As far as I’m aware, contributions from major corporations to GNU Core Utilities specifically (e.g. sed, awk, ls) have been limited. Most development has historically come from the GNU community and individual contributors. For example, UTF-8 support was likely added through community efforts rather than corporate involvement. However, as these corporations increasingly back projects moving away from GNU and the GPL, their intent to leverage the permissive nature of the MIT license becomes evident. Should 'uutils' gain widespread adoption, it would inevitably lead to a significant shift in governance.
Intel does a lot, by which I mean they sponsor people to do it. Changing user facing utils is a bad idea as it breaks things. Although I don’t really keep up with it I know they’ve been changing things like the number of levels of pages etc, over time moving to sysd instead of init and stuff but the latter was a decade ago now. You can probably trace the maintainer to who sponsors them from here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel_version_history
Kernel yes, but coreutils? It's ls, sleep, who, pwd, and so on.
If this happened, would Ubuntu based operating systems be impacted as well? I might start to learn Debian or LMDE if so.
MIT license is still open source, so Ubuntu based operating systems can still be open source. The problem is that this makes it less needed that they have to be. However most current projects will probably stay proper open source projects and likely continue to use a better license.
Fuck Ubuntu fuck MIT fuck everything
this means ubuntu is no longer a linux distro?? because if linux hardcore people think that linux is kernel+gnu then that means both android and ubuntu are not distros!! i believe the opposite, linux kernel? linux distro of course!! and ubuntu is the android of linux distros even if android is a linux distro itself
IMHO distros share the same apps. The defaults can differ, the implementations too but the user can install apps that are on other distros.
Ubuntu is no longer GNU/Linux distro. Linux is just a kernel.:)
It using glibc still distinguishes it as more of a GNU system than, say, Alpine.
Ubuntu already wasn't a linux distro nor is android. They're different operating system which use the Linux kernel.
genuinely my only problem with it is the license. I really hate how much stuff is mit or apache now. I've seen some really nice projects get taken over and privatized in the last few years and nobody has learned
sadly, i think that's exactly the reason why so many gnu coreutils/libc/compiler competitors keep croping up: people want to get rid of the gpl as much as possible. if they could replace the linux kernel with a non gpl variant they would
not that the people creating the projects necessarily have this intention, but the projects are certainly being picked up and sponsored mainly for that reason
Imo thats also why its devolped as well, people genuenly like permissive licenses because apparently coporate leeches arent an issue to them.
Can't wait for proprietary apps to not work on distros that still use gnu core utilities.
oh no!! wait but that means that xubuntu will still be around?? because as far as i know, xfce has some elements that use agpl and that would interfere with some rust code and would hurt xubuntu. would that make xubuntu stop existing?
do they interfere?
Clickbait. The VP Engineering for Ubuntu made a post that he was looking into using the Rust utils for Ubuntu and has been daily driving them and encouraged others to try
It’s by no means certain this will be done.
Clickbait
With mental outlaw, it's usually that or ragebait, to rile up his audience.
Clickbait. The VP Engineering for Ubuntu made a post that he was looking into using the Rust utils for Ubuntu and has been daily driving them and encouraged others to try
It’s by no means certain this will be done.
Here is that post. It isn't certain to happen, but he doesn't only say that he is daily driving them. He says his goal is to make them the default in 25.10:
My immediate goal is to make uutils’ coreutils implementation the default in Ubuntu 25.10, and subsequently in our next Long Term Support (LTS) release, Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, if the conditions are right.
His goal.
A VP could have the goal to increase profits by 500% over the next 6 months but that doesn't mean it's gonna happen.
It might happen, but just because someone says it's their goal is no confirmation that it will happen.
VPs don't have total control over profits, but they do have total control over which version of coreutils is in the product they release.
Okay, so it's likely to happen. I never disputed that. But just because the VP says he intends for it to happen still is not the same as a statement by the company that it will happen. He could get vetoed. He could lose his job. There could be a material shortage. Trademark disputes. A kraken could fly through his window and devour his testicles forcing him to be in the hospital on the exact day the paperwork has to be filed.
The fact remains this article is titled in a very clickbaity way because it jumps to the foregone conclusion that "want to do" = "will 100% happen".
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One of the main developers presented this project at FOSDEM.
(He is a Mozilla employee but made a point to tell it was not affiliated with Mozilla and was working on it on his spare time)
Then it's not too late to tell him it must be GPL.
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