Mac OS X Free? Linux has nothing to fear, says Linus Torvalds - ZDNet

Business: Mac OS X 10.9 for free? He cares, Linus Torvalds. The GNU / Linux systems no longer have a monopoly on free, but who cares, this is “not a threat.”

This is one of the most acclaimed of the Apple keynote announcements, last Tuesday: Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks is available for free download on the App Store, for those who have purchased a Mac from 2007. Good news – I must say that the room of the keynote was not really filled with Apple detractors

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To find the right idea to go back often ask Linus Torvalds. More eloquent than Google, less attached to a corporate line that Microsoft, the main maintainer of the Linux kernel is never unhappy to tap one of its competitors, which appears prominently Apple.

Free or free

Especially if it is a potential victim of a free proprietary operating system, it is Linux and GNU / Linux distributions using kernel. No need to remind you that free is not automatic for these distributions, and the “free software” translates better as free as free.

But Linus Torvalds, who was speaking at a session of questions and answers at the LinuxCon Europe in Edinburgh on Wednesday, Apple’s decision has nothing to do with the philosophy of Linux, says PC World.

upgrade to Mavericks may be free, but it is not open source, a term that the founder of the Linux kernel prefers to disambiguate. “The fact that Apple gives its OS is absolutely irrelevant.” More importantly, he adds, “I do not think it will impact Linux at all.”

“deep rooting among developers”

Linus Torvalds also believes that Linux does not need him anymore. Even if he has to stay in the game as long as possible, he thinks his death or withdrawal of the project would not prevent Linux to continue. “We have an extremely deep roots among developers.”

This would ensure, for him, the continuity of the project if it were to get out. “I am the person that people know and know how I work. This means they do not always like what I do or how I present things, but they can trust me to act a certain way, and that is what is important. ” For the rest, he said to trust the community.