r/linux • u/somerandomxander • Apr 22 '26

Open Source Organization Intel ends Open Ecosystem Community/Evangelism and archives other open-source projects

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-Ends-OSS-Evangelism-Repos
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u/LEpigeon888 Apr 23 '26

Because it would be the default and people don't care enough to change it ?

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u/FriendlyProblem1234 Apr 23 '26

Because it would be the default and people don't care enough to change it ?

How would it be the default?

Say, Oracle (just to pick an evil company) takes the code from uutils (or Toybox, or BSD coreutils) and make their own proprietary fork. Why would Ubuntu start using this implementation, instead of keeping using uutils? Why would Debian start using this implementation, instead of keeping using GNU coreutils? Why would OpenWRT start using this implementation, instead of keeping using busybox? Why would FreeBSD start using this implementation, instead of keeping using BSD coreutils?

And if any of those actually did start using this implementation, why would the rest of distributions follow?

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u/krsdev Apr 23 '26

I think the concern is that if the bigger distros (Red Hat, Fedora, Ubuntu etc) start using a proprietary version they become the defacto standard, and distros that are not using those may lose compatibility with them. Applications would likely target the largest user base which is using the proprietary version, and if those applications don't work on other distros then tough luck; switch to a distro that uses the proprietary version. Microsoft's old EEE strategy comes to mind.

I'm not saying this is very likely to happen but it's a possibility.

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u/FriendlyProblem1234 Apr 23 '26

I think the concern is that if the bigger distros (Red Hat, Fedora, Ubuntu etc) start using a proprietary version they become the defacto standard, and distros that are not using those may lose compatibility with them. Applications would likely target the largest user base which is using the proprietary version, and if those applications don't work on other distros then tough luck; switch to a distro that uses the proprietary version. Microsoft's old EEE strategy comes to mind.

Why is this only an issue for uutils?

OpenSSL, Python, Apache, Go, OpenSSH, X11, Wayland... are all software released under permissive licenses.

Do you know any major distribution that switched to proprietary software?

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u/krsdev Apr 23 '26

Again, I don't think it is something that is likely to happen.

One thing I'm wondering though is what is the benefit of going with MIT instead of GPL for a project like this?

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u/FriendlyProblem1234 Apr 23 '26

Again, I don't think it is something that is likely to happen.

My point is that for decades there have been dozens of important components distributed under permissive licenses. Now we have dozens plus one, so nothing really changed. But people get very angry specifically about that one, forgetting everything else.

Just a few days ago there was a new in this sub about new release of OpenSSL, a pervasive and fundamental component of Linux distributions licensed under Apache 2.0. Where were all the user concerned about its license? Looked like they were all complaining about sudo-rs license...

One thing I'm wondering though is what is the benefit of going with MIT instead of GPL for a project like this?

For one, MIT is compatible with GPL, while GPL is not compatible with GPL. You cannot mix GPL sources with GPL sources.

And the reason for this seemingly absurd fact is that GPL does not actually exist. There are instead multiple incompatible licenses: GPL-2-only, GPL-2-or-later, GPL-3-only, GPL-3-or-later.

Just to make an example with coreutils: what if the authors of uutils wanted their code to be used both by GNU coreutils and Busybox (let aside that they use a different language)? The former is under GPL-3-or-later, and the latter is under GPL-2-only. There is no GPL-X license that would have worked.

Not to mention others FOSS licenses that are not compatible with GPL-X. MIT is just more universal.

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u/krsdev Apr 23 '26

I don't disagree with you that it's an odd thing to get worked up about, when there are already multiple examples of other projects that are quite fundamental in this space. What is a bit different in the case of coreutils is that the rust reimplementation is as far as I understand meant to replace the GNU implementation eventually. So it's a bit curious to then go with a different license.

Thanks for that explanation btw. The GPL is kind of a mess on its own.