LinusTorvalds: I Have Never Really Talked To Microsoft!
The father of Linux has replied to the questions you always wanted to ask. — Swapnil Bhartiya, EFY News Network — Sunday, August 19, 2007: Did Microsoft's Men In Black ever met Linus Torvalds? But why is he so critical of GPLv3?
Context & Ripple Effects
This EFY News Network interview lands mid-escalation in the 2007 Microsoft-Linux standoff. In May, Torvalds publicly responded to Microsoft's patent infringement claims against the open-source stack, and back in December 2006 Bill Gates had given his own account of talking Linux IP from the other side of the table. Against that backdrop, the notable line here is a denial: Torvalds says he has never really talked to or met with Microsoft, closing off any assumption of back-channel negotiation between the two camps.
The second confirmed thread is licensing. With GPLv3 freshly released in mid-2007, Torvalds uses the same Q&A to restate strong objections to it — consistent with the kernel remaining under GPLv2 while parts of the broader GNU ecosystem move to the new license.
First-order effects
- Torvalds' denial undercuts speculation that Microsoft's patent campaign was being negotiated quietly with Linux leadership — the claims now sit unanswered by anyone at the kernel's center.
- His stated GPLv3 objections harden the position that Linux itself will not relicense, leaving GPLv3 adoption to be decided project-by-project elsewhere.
Second-order effects
- Microsoft's assertion that Linux infringes its patents lacks a counterparty willing to deal: with Torvalds denying contact, pressure routes instead toward commercial Linux distributors and end customers rather than the kernel community.
- The free-software ecosystem splits along the license line — GPLv3 adopters and the GPLv2-anchored kernel diverge, forcing tooling and distribution decisions around which code can be combined.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, kernel stewardship stays deliberately insulated from corporate licensing politics, making individual maintainer positions like Torvalds' a structural veto point in how open source responds to IP pressure.
- License choice consolidates into a strategic identity for projects — GPLv2 versus GPLv3 becomes a signal about who a project expects to negotiate with — rather than a purely legal technicality.
The trend: Open-source licensing is fragmenting into a GPLv2 camp anchored by the Linux kernel and a GPLv3 camp elsewhere, with the kernel's creator publicly setting the boundary during Microsoft's 2007 patent push.