Please explain to me. I moved away from Big Tech and installed - even on my old MacBook Pro 2015 - Linux Mint. I use open source software and my social media is on Fedivers. I tought I was “safe” by using Linux, but the Linux Foundation is sponsord by a lot of money by Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Google, etc… etc… the exact companies I try to take some distance off. Can somebody please explain me if Linux is “sold” to US Big Tech now?
Like everyone else said, funding=/=ownership. I do suspect, however, that part of why these big tech companies fund Linux is because they rely on something built on Linux in one way or another. Linux tends to be the better options for things like servers, low processing devices, and more, and if they keep funding it, it continues to exist so they can use it. You’d be surprised about how much of the world actually uses Linux in some way.
Funding on the other hand, does indeed equal an amount of control. The Linux foundation consistently develops and invests in things that mirror the interests of their fund sources. They fund crypto projects ffs.
Linus for example, strongly rejected GPLv3 even though it was a vastly superior version compared to GPLv2. He even rejected the concept of Tivoization, which is insane. GPLv3 would have hurt companies more and helped user freedoms.
The Linux Foundation is not where you should send your donations to - you should instead send your donations to the Free Software Foundation (FSF), which actually stands for user freedoms.
The Linux kernel also includes, by default, proprietary blobs that have been added there, and these infringe upon user rights.