Re: It's not GNU/Linux - it's jusy LINUX

Neil Brown
2006-10-03T21:41:43Z

On Tuesday October 3, marc@perkel.com wrote:
> Ivan Dimitrov wrote:
> > If you want to kill linux then fork it.And remember that many people use
> > GNU/Linux because of the ideology and the idea of freedom, not because
> > of the "Security" that DRM will provide them... This guy Linus is just
> > an ambitious and selfish bastard...
> >
>
> Ivan - It's not GNU/Linux - it's just LINUX. Time to get the name right.
> RMS doesn't get to rename Linux. Linux isn't going to go away just
> because they fork the license.

"Linux" is an operating system kernel. By itself it is pretty
useless.
A thing which is Linux plus lots of libraries and utilities and maybe
a windowing system and a "desktop" is a lot more than "Linux".

It might be Redhat Linux, it might be SuSE Linux. It might be
GNU/Linux. It might be Debian GNU/Linux. It might be KLX (referring
to KDE, Linux and The X11 Windowing System I think). It might be
Ubuntu. But isn't just "Linux".

It was never my understanding that RMS tried to rename the Linux
Kernel as GNU/Linux. Rather he wanted to name the complete system
comprising Linux and some GNU software and X and anything else that
was free as "GNU/Linux". I suspect he has more right than many to
suggest a name for the system seeing how much philosophy and
technology he has contributed.

NeilBrown