From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.ubuntu

On 12/19/2016 02:22 AM, Dänk 42Ø wrote:

[snip]

Ubuntu is a piece of crap. Clem and his team should be working from
the latest Debian release. Those poor Debian programmers put their
hearts and souls into producing a flawless operating system,
Canonical STEALS their code, rewrites a few lines, then SELLS it to
OEM manufacturers for a profit. Linux Mint then steals what is
already stolen code, tweaks it a bit more, then gives it away for free.

[snip]

What is required of these people you accuse of "stealing" has some
pretty specific expectations in return. And Canonical and Clem & Co
would probably argue there are more than just a few lines of code to be rewritten to get to the products they distribute. On top of that, if
someone wants to "steal" the rewritten code, it can be "stolen" with
exactly the same expectations as the previous "thieves" had.

You might look for some intelligent discussions of the GPL to get more details. And bring it up with Richard Stallman. He started this whole "stealing" thing.

And are you sure about the "selling" to the OEMs? That is, do they get something they can have and hold and nobody else can have at the same
time? If I sell my electric drill to my neighbor, we can't both use it
at the same time. And are they doing something that is different from
what CentOS does for Red Hat software? Do you object to that, too?

Exchanging money for software is permitted under the GPL. You're just required to follow the requirements of the GPL for the software you
received, same as if you had gotten it free. If I wanted to pay The
Document Foundation to write me a LibreOffice with orange as the theme
color, rather than green, we are allowed to do it. But if I distribute
the result, I have to follow the GPL requirements.



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