On Tue, May 21, 2002 at 12:12:37PM -0400, Nathan Hawkins wrote: > > There are things which must be expected of all systems that want to be > Debian, and things which are not. Jails, translators, Linux emulation, > and similar features are in the second category. Pipes, filesystems, > TCP/IP support, etc. are in the first.
This issue of `what is Debian' versus `what is GNU/Linux' has come up and been..., um..., `discussed' for the past several days, though nobody has actually been discussing it in such a straight-out way, and it sure looks like it's got a bunch of people confused and irritated. I think we can say that `GNU/Linux' is one set, and `Debian' is another set, and `Debian GNU/Linux' is the union of those two sets. The confusion seems to come from the fact that, so far, the only embodiment of `Debian' has been `Debian GNU/Linux', and, given only one data-point, it's rather difficult to discern the nature(s) of the set(s) in which the data-point belongs. In specific, it's difficult to look at Debian GNU/Linux and tell which parts are Debian and which parts are GNU/Linux, and just tell from this single data-point what the rules common to all Debians (the intersection of all sets) are--surely `Debian GNU/Linux' is a superset of this intersection! I have not yet seen any citations of clarifying documentation in this thread, so far. Surely, there is some documentation of requirements, which can be referenced, yes? Would someone please post a reference (a URL would be wonderful)? > This is just common sense. It may appear that way for some things, but, in general, `just common sense' doesn't work so well--I have learned first-hand how painful it can be to develop a product for which the only requirements-document is `common sense', and I'm sure that many others around these lists have also had some such experiences. The problem with knowing when a product meets spec. by `common sense' is that not very many people have a -common- opinion of what `makes sense', as should be evident from reading the threads that have been going through these lists :) Thanks. -- "The most hopelessly stupid man is he who is not aware that he is wise." -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
