The most-used operating system in the world has a Linux kernel. But, it might not be in front of you...except when you're checking email, waiting in line, playing Angry Birds, making a photograph, or checking up on Facebook.

> except when you're checking email, waiting in line, playing Angry Birds, making a photograph, or checking up on Facebook.

You've just proved his point more than you ever wanted.

> checking email

On the (probably) proprietary Mail or Gmail app.

> waiting in line

On the (probably) proprietary app for whichever thing you're staying in line for.

> playing Angry Birds

...

> making a photograph

...

> or checking up on Facebook

...!

Who care if the kernel, heavily modified and buried 100 layers deep is Open Source if all the apps users actually use are proprietary?

>Who care if the kernel, heavily modified and buried 100 layers deep is Open Source if all the apps users actually use are proprietary?

I guess by this definition any open sourced library that an "end user app" uses doesn't count either.

Given your sense of fatalism about this, I assume you don’t spend your free time building OSS apps for mobile platforms?

I'm not a fatalist, I'm just pointing out a fact. FOSS is far from winning.

FOSS has barely "won" the lower levels of the stack and the highly technical niches. But the more you move towards user-facing applications, the more proprietary things become.

If you genuinely care about reversing this, then I recommend spending more of your free time building open source apps meant for end user consumption.