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this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2023
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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It certainly does pose an issue from that perspective but I'm not sure any more than websites in general. It's not actually that hard to rip off a website's design and so it's quite common to see phishing scams of that nature. In some sense it's less likely to happen with people impersonating a Lemmy instance simply because actually setting up and running one is more work than impersonating just a regular website.
Yes, someone could create an instance called "officiallemmyinstancedotcom" and pretend to be the one single official lemmy to try to trap people searching for Lemmy not entirely knowing what it is, but I don't think the fact that people already think places like lemmy.ml or lemmy.world are synonymous with Lemmy is a prerequisite for someone doing that. If anything, people who mistakenly think one of those two is the only "real" Lemmy are probably less likely to be taken in by a malicious one.
Still...
Providing clearer on site messaging to help avoid this sort of confusion sounds like something a good UX designer could perhaps assist the Lemmy FOSS project with?