On Mon, Feb 02, 2004 at 01:50:30PM -0800, Corey Edwards wrote: > > What bugs me about the whole issue is that a typical Linux distribution > contains more than just a Linux kernel and GNU. Some of the major ones > with different licenses include X, Apache and Perl. Should we call it > GNU/X/Apache/Perl/Linux? There's a whole lot of GPL and BSD code which > is not GNU software but nobody's clamoring about their software not > getting its name in bright lights. > > It is unfortunate that the two get confused but I don't think GNU/Linux > is the answer.
I'm by no means a FSF fanatic, but I need to point out that some of you are looking at this completely wrong, even when other people have made some very clear comments. I almost always refer to the whole system as Linux, but I personally agree that GNU/Linux is a more technically correct name. Your system includes Perl, X, Apache, etc., but none of them, with the possible exception of X if you are scared of the command line, could possibly be considered a core component of the system. If you were to delete Apache, Perl, or any other application, your computer might not do what you need it to, but it would still be perfectly usable. You could login and do things. On the other hand, as others have pointed out, GNU components are fundamental components of your system. If you were to find a way to delete all GNU programs off of your computer, you wouldn't even be able to boot it. It would be completely useless. The name GNU/Linux has absolutely nothing to do with the kernel. Nobody cares what was used to compile the kernel. The kernel program is called Linux. But GNU is what makes it possible to run a system which at the core is completely comprised of GNU software. I hope that my brief explanation will help us all pack up our straw man and wait for a slightly less blatant opportunity to pull him out and beat him up. -- Andrew McNabb http://www.mcnabbs.org/andrew/ PGP Fingerprint: 8A17 B57C 6879 1863 DE55 8012 AB4D 6098 8826 6868
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