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by deafpolygon 621 days ago
Linux's dominance might still have emerged due to the individuals behind it. Beyond Torvalds' work on the kernel, Richard Stallman and others had a significant influence in shaping its early trajectory. Their philosophies and actions were key in driving the open-source movement forward.

The BSD license, while appealing to corporations due to its permissive nature, allows proprietary entities to incorporate the code into their products without giving back to the community. This has happened multiple times, with examples like Apple's Darwin, NetApp, QNAP, and Sony's PlayStation systems.

The GPL, on the other hand, attracted early contributors because it ensured that their work would remain open and shared with the world, rather than being exploited for profit.