linus torvalds has complete power over linux. huh.

that means that he's likely to include linux in his will.

could you imagine inheriting linux?

Does he have legal authority that he can transfer without the existing structures approval?

@N00bPancakes not sure, i always thought he had absolute authority over it.

Linux is freeware no one has the power

@Matthewb Still, Linus has the power to choose which features get implemented on the main kernel.

@Bybit260 ya but which kernel? Kali? Ubuntu? Redhat? Mint? Fedora? He's not fucking bill gates dude, the guy that invented Unix and therefore all Linux distros is dead and still no one owns it

@Bybit260 Not really. He's the leader because he was proven to be a good one and there's no reason nor candidate to replace him. He doesn't own it, in fact the individual developers and companies own every line they wrote, however they're all bound by the GPL.

@Matthewb This one https://www.kernel.org/ the mainline kernel

@Lor-inc Yeah but I meant the mainline kernel.

@Bybit260 Yes, that's what I'm talking about. Everyone owns whatever they added.

@Lor-inc Yeah that.

The only Power he really has, is his gatekeeper role for the mainline kernel.
But if he or his successor falls in disgrace by the other devs, they could just fork and distributions could just abandon the mainline kernel for such a fork (read the GPL for the legal background).

The current state of linux development is the rare proof, that humans can work together and accept a single leader without that leader actually having any real power to enforce his decisions.

Not really, you need to cut down on shower time