On 02/03/11 12:24, Wolfgang Bornath wrote:
2011/3/2 Romain d'Alverny<[email protected]>:
On Wed, Mar 2, 2011 at 12:13, Michael Scherer<[email protected]> wrote:
On Tue, 01 Mar 2011 22:29:09 -0600, Richard Couture wrote:
Throughout the pages at www.Mageia.org there are references to Linux
as if it is an OS or a distribution, [...]
I would propose that if you wish to do it right, to first do it right from
a mageia point of view. IE, that you should first post
on the proper ml ( ie one dedicated to web, or marketing, I would start by
marcom ). [...]
Yep. The point is relevant (common language use vs. precision) so
thank you Richard for bringing this up, in a good way.
Second, if you really want to do it right, you should IMHO start with a
patch, [...]
Although before a patch, the right message replacement should be
defined in marcom first.
Three, [...]
And please avoid the "politically [in]correct" thing, it is fuzzy at
best and it contributes to defuse the stance.
As a side note, you will note that the Mageia end-product is to be
called "Mageia" and not "Mageia Linux" (neither "Mageia GNU/Linux" for
that matter). If it does, it's a matter of imprecision we can fix. And
we did launch the project as "Mageia, the new Linux distribution" -
this was a temporary launch title and it had to be short.
So the fix will be more in how we define this Mageia product as such
("operating system"? "GNU/Linux distribution"? st else?) and relative
to what it uses/gathers (GNU/Linux indeed, but not only).
As a side note:
I met RMS when he held a speech in Frankfurt. He told me that he will
not visit Linuxtag (nor reply to an invitation for a key note) until
they change the event's name to "GNU/Linuxtag". I mention this to show
his commitment about this point.
But language and also expressions are a living thing. Today everybody
is aware that "Linux" stands for the whole package while "kernel" is
the current expression for the "real" Linux and everything else are
tools and apps, where the GNU tools are just one part. What we now
call "Linux" is far more than what RMS claims, it is not just
GNU/Linux. It is also Mozilla/Linux, OpenOffice.org/Linux, etc.
My personal opinion on that: to really be correct we have no other way
to use either "Linux" or use [all tools and applications]/Linux, which
would be ridiculous.
I agree with wobo. In English, and, I think, in many other modern
languages, the meaning of a word is determined by common usage and not
by what technical experts think it should mean.
The Oxford Dictionary, which (eventually) reflects common usage, and is
the nearest we have to a definitive source in English, defines Linux as:
"an open-source operating system modelled on UNIX."
"Political in-correctness" often results from failure to recognise the
changing meanings/connotations of words.
Jim
