Why is Fedora not a Free GNU/Linux distributions?

[Antonio Olivares]

> Code that is freely available doesn't need protection
> as nothing can 
> happen to it other then someone else using and improving it
> which is a 
> good thing regardless of what else happens to that copy
> subsequently.
I am sure many would disagree with this, The code has to be protected in some way to ensure that someone/or a company cannot claim the code to be theirs and start selling it and not give anything back.  This is the good side of the GPL if there is one.  
> 
> Long ago it might not have been completely predictable that
> many end 
> points of the longest-developed paths of unix development 
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Unix_history-simple.svg)
> would be 
> open-sourced but it was never out of the question either. 
> Having that 
> big chunk isolated by the GPL and unable to share
> components is just bad 
> for everyone.
> 
Unix is not GPL'd, Linux is or did I miss something here?

The components can be shared, you just have to use the GPL and license your work on it.  This is like I scratch your back, but you will also scratch mine.  Cooperation is the key and interoperability between compnents like you have mentioned. 
> -- 

Regards,

Antonio