The untold stories of how corporations tried to destroy free software — and why the world needs people like you to keep fighting for it. Also: why real computers still matter!
Tablets are great for consuming. Computers are for creating.
Tahvelarvuti teeb sinust tarbija. Arvuti teeb sinust looja. Maailmas on piisavalt tarbijaid — vajame rohkem loojaid.— The Open Source Community
Big tech wants you to scroll, watch, and tap — on their terms. A computer lets you build, code, design, and create — on YOUR terms. Don't just use technology. Loo see.
You can't learn programming on an iPad. You can't run a physics simulation, edit a 3D model, or train an AI on a phone. Real education needs real tools — and that means a real computer.
That "slow" laptop? Install Linux and it's faster than ever. A 10-year-old PC with Linux outperforms a new tablet for real work. Save hundreds of dollars and reduce e-waste!
Tablets lock you into Apple or Google's ecosystem. They decide what you can install, what you can see, and they collect your data 24/7. A Linux computer gives you total freedom and total privacy.
Want to run Ollama with DeepSeek or Llama locally? Train a model? Build an AI project? You need a real computer. The AI revolution is built on Linux — be part of it!
Servers, hospitals, banks, space stations, self-driving cars — they all run on Linux computers. If you want a career in technology, you need to understand real computers, not just apps.
Ja kuidas kogukond vastu astus — ning iga kord võitis.
Java was created by Sun Microsystems in 1995 and given to the world with open principles. When Google built Android, they used Java APIs (the way programs talk to each other). Then everything changed...
Oracle ostis Sun Microsystemsi 2010. aastal for $7.4 billion — and immediately sued Google for $9 billion, claiming Google "stole" Java's APIs by using them in Android. If Oracle won, it would mean any company could own an API — the building blocks of all software. Every developer in the world would be at risk.
The case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court — the highest court in America! Google argued that APIs are like the alphabet — you can't own the letters, even if you invented them. Developers, the EFF, Mozilla, and the entire open-source community rallied behind Google. 11 aastat of legal battles, millions in legal fees.
In April 2021, otsustas ülemkohus häältega 6–2 Google’i kasuks! API-d on fair use. Oracle kaotas. Kogu tarkvaratööstus hingas kergendatult. Kui Oracle oleks võitnud, oleks avatud lähtekoodiga tarkvara sellisel kujul, nagu seda tunneme, võinud hävida.
Just because a company buys something open doesn't mean they can close it. The community and the courts protected the principle that building blocks of software belong to everyone.
OpenOffice.org oli maailma populaarseim tasuta kontoritarkvarapakett — seda kasutasid miljonid inimesed, koolid ja valitsused. Sun Microsystems armastas ja toetas seda. Siis saabus Oracle...
Pärast Suni ostmist näitas Oracle zero interest in OpenOffice. They cut resources, ignored the community, fired key developers, and tried to commercialize it. The vibrant community that built OpenOffice for years was being abandoned.
The community didn't beg Oracle. They forked the project — meaning they took the open-source code and created a new independent version called LibreOffice. Mõne kuuga oli enamik OpenOffice'i arendajaid liikunud LibreOffice'i juurde. See on avatud lähtekoodi jõud: the community owns the code, not the company.
LibreOffice saavutas tohutu edu. Tänaseks on see tõlgitud 120+ keelde, seda kasutavad valitsused (Prantsusmaa, Itaalia, Saksamaa) ning see on palju aktiivsem kui OpenOffice kunagi oli. Oracle loovutas OpenOffice'i lõpuks Apache Foundationile, kus see tasapisi hääbus. The community version won.
This is the superpower of open source: you can always fork. If a company abandons or corrupts a project, the community takes the code and builds something better. No corporation can hold open-source hostage.
MySQL oli maailma enim kasutatav avatud lähtekoodiga andmebaas — Facebooki, Google'i, Vikipeedia ja miljonite veebilehtede alus. Selle looja Michael "Monty" Widenius, oli müünud oma ettevõtte Sun Microsystemsile teadmisega, et MySQL jääb tõeliselt avatuks.
When Oracle announced it was buying Sun, Monty panicked. Oracle already owned the competing commercial database (Oracle DB). Letting them own MySQL was like letting a wolf guard the sheep. Monty literally begged the European Commission to block the deal.
The EU approved the deal anyway. So Monty did the only thing he could — he forked MySQL and created MariaDB, mis on nimetatud tema tütre Maria järgi (MySQL sai nime tema teise tütre My järgi!). Ta võttis koodi ja kogukonna endaga kaasa.
MariaDB asendas MySQL-i enamikus Linuxi distributsioonides. Vikipeedia, Google ja arvukad ettevõtted läksid üle. MariaDB on nüüd default database in most Linux systems. The creator saved his own creation by using the power of open-source licensing!
The creator named his databases after his two daughters — and fought to keep them free. Open-source licenses mean that even if a company buys the original, the community can always take the code and continue independently.
In the early 2000s, Linux was growing fast and scaring the proprietary world. A company called SCO Group saw an opportunity to make money from fear...
SCO claimed they owned parts of the Unix code that was "stolen" and put into Linux. They sued IBM for $5 billion and threatened to sue every Linux user! They sent letters to 1,500 of the world's biggest companies saying "you owe us money for using Linux." It was pure fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD).
The entire open-source world united. IBM hired the best lawyers. Novell proved they actually owned the Unix copyrights, not SCO. The community analyzed every line of code and proved Linux was clean. Linus Torvalds ise testified that Linux was independently created.
SCO lost everything. The courts ruled they didn't even own the copyrights they were suing over! SCO went bankrupt in 2007. Linux emerged stronger than ever, and the FUD strategy was exposed for what it was — an empty threat. Today Linux powers 96% of servers worldwide.
Companies will use fear and legal threats to try to stop open source. But when the community stands together, examines the facts, and fights back — the truth wins.
For over a decade, Microsoft treated open source as its biggest enemy. Internal documents, leaked in 1998 as the "Halloween Documents", paljastasid Microsofti salajase strateegia avatud lähtekoodi hävitamiseks.
Microsofti tegevjuht Steve Ballmer nimetas Linuxit „vähk“ in 2001. They spread FUD, claiming Linux violated their patents. They forced companies to pay "Linux taxes." They tried to kill the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project by offering cheap Windows. They even funded SCO's lawsuit against Linux!
The community didn't give up. Linux kept getting better, Android launched on Linux, Google built their empire on open source, and cloud computing ran almost entirely on Linux. Microsoft slowly realized: you can't beat open source. You have to join it.
In 2014, new CEO Satya Nadella declared „Microsoft ❤️ Linux.“ They bought GitHub ($7.5B), open-sourced VS Code, .NET, and TypeScript, built Linux into Windows (WSL), and became the #1 avatud lähtekoodi panustaja GitHubis! The enemy became the biggest supporter.
Avatud lähtekood on nii võimas, et isegi selle suurim vaenlane pidi alla andma ja liituma. Kui su toode on parem, kogukond tugevam ja väärtused õiged — even giants eventually kneel.
In the late 1990s, Microsoft's Internet Explorer had a 96% market share. Microsoft ehitas veebilehti, mis töötasid ainult IE-s, püüdes muuta internetti Microsofti tooteks.
Microsoft lisas IE tasuta Windowsile ja surus konkurendid välja. Algne brauser Netscape oli hääbumas. Veebist sai Microsofti monopol ning standardeid eirati. Nii jätkates oleks internet ise kuulunud ühele ettevõttele.
In a desperate last move, Netscape open-sourced their browser code in 1998 — creating the Mozilla project. A small, passionate community rebuilt the browser from scratch. In 2004, they released Firefox 1.0. Nad avaldasid New York Timesis terve lehekülje reklaami, mida rahastati täielikult kogukonna annetustest!
Firefox broke IE's monopoly. At its peak, Firefox had 30%+ market share. More importantly, it forced Microsoft to follow web standards. Järgnesid Google Chrome (avatud lähtekoodiga Chromiumil põhinev) ja teised. Avatud veeb jäi püsima. Kõik veebilehed, mida täna külastad, töötavad tänu sellele, et avatud lähtekood päästis interneti.
Üks väike avatud lähtekoodiga projekt, mida veavad innukad vabatahtlikud, saved the entire internet from becoming a monopoly. Ära alahinda kunagi seda, mida usku täis kogukond suudab saavutada.
Apple, John Deere, and others tried to make it illegal to fix your own devices. The open-source community led the fight for your right to repair your own property. Laws are now being passed worldwide!
Europe passed the strongest privacy law in history. Open-source tools like Nextcloud, Matrix, and Signal became the standard for privacy compliance. Open source = privacy by design.
When the US banned Huawei from using Google services, it showed the danger of depending on one company. Countries and companies started investing more in open-source alternatives for digital sovereignty.
Red Hat (owned by IBM) restricted access to RHEL source code. The community immediately created AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux. Once again: you can't kill open source — the community just forks!
Ründaja veetis 2 aastat XZ pakkimisteeki sisse imbudes, et sinna tagauks paigutada. Avatud lähtekoodi arendaja märkas 0.5-sekundilist aeglustumist ja paljastas kogu plaani! Suletud tarkvara puhul ei saaks seda kunagi juhtuda — sa ei saa uurida seda, mida sa ei näe.
DeepSeek R1, an open-source AI model trained for $6M, matched GPT-4 costing $100M+. Tech stocks crashed $1 trillion in a day. The open-source AI revolution is here — and it cannot be stopped.
Every single time, the story follows the same arc.
Through lawsuits, buyouts, FUD, or neglect
By forking, organizing, coding, and standing together
The fork is better, the community is bigger, the code is stronger
Every story needed real humans who cared enough to fight. The code can be forked — but someone has to do it.
Every battle above was won by regular people — students, developers, teachers, designers — who believed in freedom and took action. The next battle needs YOU.
Switch to Linux, Firefox, LibreOffice. Every user makes the community stronger.
Tell your friends and family. Show them what's possible. Share this page!
Report bugs, translate, write docs, or code. Every contribution counts!
Learn Linux, learn to code, then teach others. Knowledge multiplies when shared.
Install Linux on old PCs and give them to those who need them. Be a hero!
Join local Linux User Groups, attend events, connect with open-source communities.
«وَأَلَنَّا لَهُ الْحَدِيدَ»
At Alin Li, usume, et tehnoloogia tuleks muuta leebemaks ja kõigile lihtsaks — just nagu raud tehti pehmeks. Eespool kirjeldatud võitlused näitavad, et kui inimesed seisavad koos teadmiste ja vabaduse eest, ei saa ükski ettevõte neid peatada.
The question is: will you be part of the next story? ✨