this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2026
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Doesn't going public mean it'd probably stop being open source?
That's a good question.
Short answer, no.
Long answer, Jeff Gerling did a great blog on Red Hat restricting access to its flagship RHEL while still providing upstream access. https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2023/clearing-fud-surrounding-red-hats-actions/
Going public just means that the shares will be traded on a public market (stock market) rather than being held privately. So anyone who wants to buy shares can. There are some legal requirements to be publicly traded, largely regarding public disclosure of finances and assets.
The major difference would be that suddenly anyone who wants to have a say in how they are run can buy shares, and if they buy enough shares, they can pressure leadership in to making decisions they would not have otherwise made. also, people buying the shares probably will want to see their shares increase in value, and thus leadership will be pressured to please the stock market hive mind. Potentially it opens them up to a hostile takeover where some outside group buys up enough shares to replaces the leadership with people they want in charge.
Not necessarily, Red Hat is a public company and their software is open source.
In Canonical's case, it being open source is an asset, it gives users transparency.
Red hat isn’t a publicly traded company, but they are owned by a publicly traded company (IBM)
OpenSource is different than Free OpenSource