Is this scenario practically feasible?

[MSWindosNT]

What if someday a Microsoft minded corporation with huge funds attempts to get it hands on Linux, undermining the GPL, manipulating Mr. Linus in many ways to give them the Linux trademark rights and thus stop all the open source process and Linux distributions thus galvanizing their control over all Linux resources and monopolize them letting them introduce a Linux OS of their own with everything in line with the commercial policies of Microsoft? This could be a scary scenario but it seems unrealistic. But what if some corporation with the help of top notch lawyers could do that? That could be the death of the open source movement. Do you think that there is some chance that this could happen in real life? Is that practically possible?:(

[23meg]

No.

[maybeway36]

Once something is liscened under the GPL, users will always have rights to use it under the terms of the GPL; thereby anyone can fork it.

[happysmileman]

Worst they could do is get the trademark, and then the software would still be around under a different name, but I doubt Linus would ever give it up, and I doubt they'd bother trying.

[Game_boy]

The fact that that scenario could never happen (or at lreeast if it did there would be little impact) is ione of the best attributes of the free software philosophy.

Example: XFree86 -> X.Org. The X Window System is perhaps even more instrumental to free Unix-like OSs than the Linux kernel, but it still was an externally smooth transition.

[MonkeyBoy]

The whole OSS thing goes well beyond just Linux. Take NetBSD (http://www.netbsd.org/), Syllable (http://web.syllable.org/pages/index.html), or Belenix (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belenix) as examples. If Linux really did vanish just like that (Which wont happen) just imagine the impact that all the Linux OSS developers etc would have on any of these projects if they were all forced to migrate at once. We would have a weird year or so but then some other OSS platform would fill the gap.

[original_jamingrit]

Even if Microsoft does manage to somehow legally create a proprietary fork or takeover of linux, it would only draw more people's attention to free *nix-based OSes.
open source could only ever be killed by disinterest.
If you want to create hypothetical situations that result in the death of linux, at least make them fun. Like if gnu-linux software is outlawed, and the only people that use it are bands of rebels on the run from the government.

[Dragonbite]

What if someday a Microsoft minded corporation with huge funds attempts to get it hands on Linux, undermining the GPL, manipulating Mr. Linus in many ways to give them the Linux trademark rights and thus stop all the open source process and Linux distributions thus galvanizing their control over all Linux resources and monopolize them letting them introduce a Linux OS of their own with everything in line with the commercial policies of Microsoft? This could be a scary scenario but it seems unrealistic. But what if some corporation with the help of top notch lawyers could do that? That could be the death of the open source movement. Do you think that there is some chance that this could happen in real life? Is that practically possible?:(
We're actually talking about 2 pieces here... the Linux kernel (for which there are other kernels out there) and the GPL.

If they got the Linux trademark and held it "hostage" then people would move to another kernel such as Solaris, BSD or other Unix.

Even if they had the Linux trademark it would do nothing to the GPL and they would be as bound to the GPL as Sun, Novell and anybody else in the Linux Market is.

The legal standing of the GPL? Well that's going to be challenged in the course of time whether a conspiracy or not and if it is going to fall there isn't much one can do about it, but not everything is under the GPL and there are other Open Source licenses out there that things will probably move to if necessary.

This is, of course, after the lawyers for Red Hat, Novell, IBM, Sun and others put up their fight.

In the end, though, it could end up with everybody moving from the GPL to the APL (Another Public License) and make it all moot.

So the short answer to the feasibility of it, I think, is "Unlikely". Never say never, but also don't underestimate the ability of people to fight the good fight, or adapt to the changing environment.

[Lostincyberspace]

What if someday a Microsoft minded corporation with huge funds attempts to get it hands on Linux, undermining the GPL, manipulating Mr. Linus in many ways to give them the Linux trademark rights and thus stop all the open source process and Linux distributions thus galvanizing their control over all Linux resources and monopolize them letting them introduce a Linux OS of their own with everything in line with the commercial policies of Microsoft? This could be a scary scenario but it seems unrealistic. But what if some corporation with the help of top notch lawyers could do that? That could be the death of the open source movement. Do you think that there is some chance that this could happen in real life? Is that practically possible?:(

If Microsoft acquired Linux in some way they would be charged with and convicted of being a monopoly for sure.

[Insomniac20k]

I don't want to have to pirate linux!

[samwyse]

No.

well said.