---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2002 07:56:43 -0700 (MST)
From: Richard Stallman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [EUG-LUG:1432] Fwd: RMS statements...
yes, one could easily get into the chicken/egg argument. could you use GNU
w/out linux? could you use linux w/out GNU?
You can use GNU without Linux now. For instance, you can run the
GNU/Hurd system, which is GNU using the Hurd as kernel. However, in
the 90s this option was not working yet, and GNU as a whole was always
used in combination with Linux back then. That linkage is what led to
the confusion of lumping GNU in with Linux.
I think it is possible to use Linux without GNU, but only for embedded
computers or special purposes, because you don't have a real operating
system that way. Also, you could theoretically put Linux into some
system other than GNU, say FreeBSD, and then you would have
FreeBSD/Linux. But that is not the system we use. The system we use
is GNU/Linux.
Personally I cant imagine how
someone could understand much about linux without not knowing about GNU.
Often they have heard the name "GNU" but they have the wrong idea of
what we did. They may think GNU is the name of a license, or that GNU
was a project to develop a collection of "tools", or that it was a
precursor or inspiration for "the Linux system". The actual truth,
that we started the development of the system they think of as "Linux"
seven years before Linus, seems incredible to them when they hear it.
The truth will continue to seem incredible as long as people rarely
come across it. That is why we ask EUGLUG to help spread the word.
Calling the system "GNU/Linux" is the most effective way to do it
without lots and lots of work.
then when Redhat includes tools for install, its redhat/linux/gnu, and when
mandraike improves on redhats tools, its mandrake/redhat/linux/gnu, And If I
make a distro with mandrake, its rocksolidnetworks/mandrake/redhat/linux/gnu.
Can you see how this becomes cumbersome?
Sure. At some point you will need to drop from the name some of the
secondary contributions, such as Red Hat, Mandrake, and Linux. GNU,
being the biggest contribution and the one that started the whole
thing, is the last one you should omit.
