this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2025
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Linus Torvalds calls RISC-V code from Google engineer 'garbage' and that it 'makes the world actively a worse place to live' — Linux honcho puts dev on notice for late submissions, too (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 1 week ago by throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to c/tech@programming.dev
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[–] pivot_root@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

If you want to look in the operating system space, Linux holds the highest share of operating systems that aren't Windows or MacOS. And that share is maybe 3% if you isolate it to just PC gamers, and much lower when you include general computer usage.

Could one of the BSD variants have ended up in the same position? Maybe, but probably not. Linux is basically a unicorn where circumstances lined up perfectly for it to become as big as it is today.

As much as it sucks to admit, the Linux kernel would not be where it is today without the additional expertise and man-hours donated by companies. That never would have happened if it weren't open-source, collaborative, and free for commercial use. It also happened to exist in a situation where the cost-benefit analysis meant it was more worthwhile to hire people to improve the Linux kernel, than it would have been to create a kernel in-house or license one from a vendor.

[–] FizzyOrange@programming.dev 4 points 6 days ago

Maybe, but probably not.

Why not?

As much as it sucks to admit, the Linux kernel would not be where it is today without the additional expertise and man-hours donated by companies. That never would have happened if it weren’t open-source, collaborative, and free for commercial use.

It feels like you're ignoring network effects here. If Linux didn't exist then something else (e.g. FreeBSD) would be much more popular and would be targeted by companies instead.