If Linux became illegal

[blueshiftoverwatch]

Also do you think there's any reason someone can't design a completely new OS with no relation to the current ones and that is entirely new?

It's not so much the issue of designing a new OS as much as it is, even if the most amazing OS ever created was released tomorrow. Nobody would use it because it would have so many hardware and software compatibility issues that nobody would be able to run it.

Also, Linux has been out for over 20 years. Even with millions of people looking at the code to add more functions and fix bugs it's percentage of desktop market penetration is in the lower single digits. A new OS (like Haiku) doesn't stand a chance. I think that Windows, Macintosh (heavily modified Unix), and Unix-like OS's will stomp out any possibility of a new OS's entering the market and gaining any sort of serious following beyond that of hobbyists toying around. Just like I doubt that we'll ever see the day when a non-x86 based architecture will become mainstream in the desktop market.

[Kai69]

If i was illegal I would continue to use it.

Unjust laws must be challenged.

I agree

[crlang13]

I agree

+1 again.

They're having enough trouble policing illegal music and movie downloads.

An "illegal" operating system could be coded to be nearly undetectable.

[blueshiftoverwatch]

+1 again.

They're having enough trouble policing illegal music and movie downloads.

An "illegal" operating system could be coded to be nearly undetectable.

But if the OS was illegal than people would have to develop it in secret instead of doing it out in the open. This might not be such a problem for individual programmers writing away lines code in their basements. But, much of modern Linux is developed by companies who wouldn't be able to skirt around the law as easily as individual people and would probably have to close up shop.

[chillicampari]

I would worry less about Microsoft and more about someone on the home team going wacky (like the SCO Group did).

[gymophett]

Linux won't become illegal.
But if it were, I'd be one big criminal.
Or I'd just move to BSD.

[MSich]

I see Microsoft going open source in the far distant future, in order to control it and capitalize on it in some way. Probably through the enterprise products.

[Old_Grey_Wolf]

If Linux became illegal, I wouldn't think that it was the end of the world. I have been using computers long before Microsoft, Macintosh, or Linux existed. I would find an alternative. There have always been alternatives. Most people just don't know about them.

[Tibuda]

I see Microsoft going open source in the far distant future, in order to control it and capitalize on it in some way. Probably through the enterprise products.

MS already have some open source projects, but I don't think they will open their main products like Windows and Office.

[Kai69]

But if the OS was illegal than people would have to develop it in secret instead of doing it out in the open. This might not be such a problem for individual programmers writing away lines code in their basements. But, much of modern Linux is developed by companies who wouldn't be able to skirt around the law as easily as individual people and would probably have to close up shop.

Then again I wonder how many Microsoft programmers leave work go into their basement and work on a linux program just for fun