Holy Sh*t. Did Micro$oft buy Linux???

[kastro68]

Hi,

I read on Tom's Hardware that Microsoft bought linux. Could someone confirm whether or not this is a hoax.

Thx

[juicemansam]

Don't panic! The article was created on April 1st, so it's most likely a hoax, especially with a begining like, "At a small press conference in Nepal, attended by two Sherpas and a Yak."

Well, if Linus were to have actually sell his trademark to Microsoft, it would only be the trademark, which is only the kernel, Linux. The majority of OS related software is GNU's creation. So I think were safe of having an open source OS, even if Linux ets sold or closed. If I'm not mistaken (which I probably am), the acquisition of Linux by MS would only mean that any releases after the purchase would be affected, not past or present (just before the purchase) releases.

Let's not forget that there are other open source OS's (*BSD's), which some claim are even more stable, and HURD (which seems to be getting slightly more with the times as the days roll on by), to name just a few.

[Joe999]

I'm not a lawyer, but even if Linus sold the rights, could that have any impact on the already GPL's code? Even as a worse case scenario, it seems one could simply fork the Linux code and rename it "freedom kernel" or something.

[ChristianHJW]

Yes, you could easily take all the existing GPL code, rename it, relase it under GPL again and there you go ....

[mf]

There are too many contributions to Linux for anyone to just sell the rights and close the source. Linus would only be able to relicense parts that he wrote, the rest is not his copyright. So there you go.

[petefol]

didn't MS buy corel's linux awhile back?

[disturbed1]

Xandros did.

[Kb_cruncher]

Why would Bill buy it when it is already there for free?
I would say he uses linux more than he would care to admit,he's proberbly got his own personal distro and a penguin on his key chain;)