> But isn't linux US tech?

If you want to discuss it on that level, it if Finnish tech imported to the USA, inspired by a Dutch implementation of a research OS.

On a more serious note, Linux has been developed by many individuals all over the world, you can't put a nationality stamp on it.

Linux is a global project, and open source more broadly is also of course global.

Linux Mint (the distro I use) was started and is led by French developer Clement Lefebvre.

QEMU and FFmpeg are among the notable projects started by French developer Fabrice Bellard.

VLC was started by students of École Centrale Paris.

These are just the things that I know about as an American, so I'm sure there are more.

The difference, of course, is that they can inspect the source, and should the US try to use it as leverage they can just fork and continue on.

GNU was never anything but a flag-of-convenience. The number of people who take RMS seriously was and is small.