> However, the kernel was far less successful. Despite the claims > of "superior architecture", Hurd has never caught on; almost every > implementation you'll run into (I'd say 'every', but someone would come > up with John Drutin's Distro as a counter-example) uses the Linux kernel > and GNU libraries and utilities. Read the Wikipedia article on "GNU Hurd".
To be fair to the FSF there is often a perception that the FSF screwed up here. In a sense yes they made some wrong decisions, and then very stupidly were insulting and hostile to the Linux authors but there is a background that makes more sense. When the GNU OS concept started the idea that everyone would have a Unix capable system on their desk was pretty hard to imagine. The choice of a Mach based microkernel was both in keeping with a lot of the research of the time and also had a social element. The vision was a machine where any user could for example implement their own personal file system without interfering with other users. Viewed in the modern PC world that sounds loopy but on a shared multi-user computer it was an important aspect of software freedom. Sticking to Mach and being hostile to Linux wasn't very smart and a lot of developers have not forgiven the FSF for that, which is one reason they find the "GNU/Linux" label deeply insulting. The other screw up was that they turned down the use of UZI, which would have given them a working if basic v7 Unix equivalent OS years before Linux was released. Had they done that Linux would never have happened and probably the great Windows battle would have been much more fascinating. > Richard Stallman wants people to acknowledge the contribution GNU has made > to the success of the Linux distributions by refering to them collectively > as "GNU/Linux". People tend to go for the shortest term that conveys a > meaning, so the vast majority of people simply call it "Linux", and those > who know understand that the GNU utilities, commands, and libraries are > included. In some cases - by code volume the FSF is not the biggest contributor, even when you include (as they like to) all the third party code they took and labelled GNU. In the case of the largest and most common Linux distribution today there is almost no GNU code in it: Android. Alan -- users mailing list users@lists.fedoraproject.org To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines Have a question? Ask away: http://ask.fedoraproject.org
