> (...) the direct challenge to the discourse of “free software” that Torvalds himself had never been interested in mounting. (...) “Free software because it wo

> (...) the direct challenge to the discourse of “free software” that Torvalds himself had never been interested in mounting. (...) “Free software because it works better” easily trumped “Free software because all software should be free”. I think Torvalds would decidedly have not been interested in that thesis. For example, while git has proven more popular and is probably now technically superior to its chief predecessor BitKeeper, Linus would have been content to continue using that proprietary tool had it not been for the reverse engineering "incident" of 2005 that led to git's conception. Linus appears driven instead by pragmatism, making use of what is practically available - proprietary or open - while building that which is not, should the path be clear in how to do so.