Re: Nvidia and its choice to read the GPL "differently"

Richard Stallman
2003-01-03T07:42:00Z

Actually, since Linux is the kernel, and GNU/Linux (or GNU+Linux) is
the collection of tools that make the full system,

That's almost correct, but not quite. GNU/Linux is the whole system,
the combination of GNU and Linux.

Many people think GNU is a collection of tools, because the best known
among the programs we developed for GNU are tools. We also developed
other programs for GNU that are not tools. But GNU is not just a
collection of various programs; it's an operating system which in 1992
was mostly complete. (See http://www.gnu.org/gnu/the-gnu-project.html.)

it would be
*inaccurate* to say anything but "Linux" when talking about "Linux,
the operating system."

The term "operating system" has sometimes been used with the same
meaning as "kernel", but nowadays when people speak of operating
systems they typically mean complete systems such as HPUX, Solaris,
Windows, MacOS, GNU, and GNU/Linux.