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

Richard Stallman
2003-01-04T23:40:27Z

The term Linux for the whole system might be inaccurate, but it's what
is used and as long as the owner of the name Linux (Linus) doesn't complain
that's fine. Calling it GNU/Linux is 1984-style changing of history, though.

The name GNU/Linux reflects the system's real history; the name Linux
teaches a mistaken picture that many people believe is true. Please
see http://www.gnu.org/gnu/the-gnu-project.html for the history.

Let's look deeper, at the criterion you've appealed to. Essentially
you've said it's ok to give credit for A's work to B if B doesn't
object. In effect, that avoids the whole issue of unfairness.

But these
collection of packages had had exactly _zero_ connection to the FSF and
the GNU project except reusing some components from the GNU project.

"Some components" is an understatement--they were numerous. But let's
look beyond that. The reason that these components fit in with other
packages, such as X11, TeX, and BSD network utilities, is that we
designed them to fit together. Our project was to build a complete
operating system, so when we developed components, we had that purpose
in mind. GNU/Linux distributions, at the root, are the result of our
project to make a free operating system.