> How did Linus convince hordes of people of contributing to his kernel, his trademark, for free? Right confluence of factors to a large extent. GNU needed a k

> How did Linus convince hordes of people of contributing to his kernel, his trademark, for free? Right confluence of factors to a large extent. GNU needed a kernel, and BSD was mired in legal trouble. Linux was there at the right time to provide a GNU-friendly kernel made from scratch. I think the GPL was also a fortunate choice. It ensured large companies couldn't easily have a closed in-house version and had incentives to contribute to the common good.