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@downey

The Linux Foundation is a consortium of big corporations for the development of the Linux kernel.

Why would you expect them to care about Linux-the-desktop-platform? Actually it's us using the wrong name.

@seldo

There are philosophy scholars who debate #AIethics.

Now who will explain to them that these are only statistical inference algorithms that simulate intelligence just like a television simulates a space-time portal.

@MischievousTomato

Linux kernel is mostly developed by a consortium of corporations (the Linux Foundation) and hardware manufacturers.

From Wikipedia:

"Blink is a browser engine developed as part of the Chromium project with contributions from Google, Meta, Microsoft, Opera Software, Adobe, Intel, IBM, Samsung, and others."

That are more or less the same corps from the Linux Foundation.

@MischievousTomato @Moon @ageha

Can you please untag me from *BSD discussions? I know what it is and where it is used but mentioning it completely miss my point.

Here there are people complaining of Blink being used too much compared to other Web implementations despite WebKit is used by all Apple devices and more and Gecko is a third good alternative.

Kernels are not even implementations of standards like Web browsers, who cares if there are kernels other than Linux used here and there, they are not alternatives to Linux.

Linux is way more prevailing than Blink in the respective areas, it's a fact that can be ignored just because of personal bias towards Google vs the other corps in the Linux Foundation.

@lanodan

> That one I can agree on, but it's not a monopoly problem, nor is it a problem with torvalds, because he's very much not alone.

Torvalds has to take balanced decisions just like Google because Linux and Blink can just being forked if the need justify the huge effort. There is no difference here, you just have a bias, at this point don't tell me you believe the Linux Foundation is a no-profit org.

> And I know that if it weren't for proprietary games, I would use FreeBSD or NetBSD everywhere.

I was not talking about desktop computing, when I said Linux kernel is everywhere of course I meant servers, embedded devices, Internet and cloud infrastructures and so on.

In theory the right way is having the interface between kernels and the rest standardized and implemented by different kernels like Linux. So basically what we have with Web standards.

The fact that very important interfaces are not standardized like the Web doesn't mean it is not possible. If there was one implemented only by Linux, maybe some people would recognize that there is an even worse problem than current Blink quasi-monopoly.

@lanodan

FYI Apple products all uses Darwin as kernel and it is meant for Apple products only.

Those are kernels but not alternatives to Linux: you can't say "I will move from Linux to...".

Too much software and hardware is based on Linux today.

If you don't want to use Blink, there are Gecko and WebKit.

A lot of people use Gecko or WebKit powered browsers today. How many use a BSD kernel instead of Linux? Can you really say BSD has broad enough scope like Linux and comparable to it feature-wise?

Torvalds has still too much power over something that has public interest.

Don't be hypocritical and admit that there is a centralization that you don't like and an even worse centralization that you like.

@lanodan

Linux kernel is waaay more irreplaceable than Blink. There are basically no good alternatives to Linux kernel while Gecko and WebKit are pretty decent alternatives to Blink.

Linux kernel development is controlled by a so called benevolent dictator. Structurally it is an even worse situation than the Blink one, it just happen to be low enough in the stack not to affect end users much and being managed well *so far*, but once Linus Torvalds retire it would be pretty easy for the corporations that form the Linux Foundation to change its direction.

@lanodan @nyx

When it comes to Blink's quasi-monopoly it is not a matter of antitrust, otherwise we would be in trouble with Linux kernel being everywhere.

We should just have public funded implementations of major standards including the whole Web and other important products and services like Linux kernel and Wikipedia.