On 20/11/2007, vijay chopra <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The way I see it, the GNU parts of my Linux machine are in userland. > Similarly, the GNU parts (GPL) of my windows machine are in userland, so it > makes as much sense for me to call my Ubuntu box GNU/Linux as it does to > call my Windows box GNU/Windows; i.e none what so ever. > As I alluded to earlier, when you get HURD running, then you can call it a > GNU operating system. > > Vijay. >
Windows is an operating system. GNU is an operating system. Ubuntu is a brand name for a particular combination of the GNU/Linux OS plus other software. Linux is a registered trademark for a kernel. If Ubuntu replaced Linux with another kernel, would you expect them to change their name? The GNU system can support many kernels, including:- * Hurd * Linux * OpenSolaris * FreeBSD's kernel * NetBSD's kernel GNU/Linux is the logical name for the GNU system with a Linux kernel. It's preferred because it does two things - a) Calls attention to the Free Software and the GNU Project b) Gives familarity with systems that have a different kernel, such as GNU/Hurd, GNU/OpenSolaris, etc. Progress on the Hurd is slow - when there are already several better working kernels for the GNU system, it is difficult to get a critical mass of developers to work on another kernel, when there are more important free software projects to hack on. -- www.dobo.urandom.co.uk ---- If each of us have one object, and we exchange them, then each of us still has one object. If each of us have one idea, and we exchange them, then each of us now has two ideas. - George Bernard Shaw - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
