On Sun, 2006-05-21 at 01:06 +0000, Dinesh Joshi wrote: > On Saturday 20 May 2006 18:42, Arun K. Khan wrote: > > IMO Linux, by using the GNU utilities, provided the exposure to FSF > > and brought to it the attention of a much larger audience than the > > uber geeks. > > Were there any other more complete set of "Free" ( Open Source ) > utilities that Linus could've used instead of GNU?
I am referring to the exposure of the GNU tools to a wide computer user audience. No doubt, GNU tool set existed circa 1984/85 but there was no stable GNU/OS (Mach kernel) for the junta to install and use. The Linux kernel along with the GNU tool set (along with other open source software) provided the stable platform - the combo was a perfect fit. Folks had ported the tools to the various commercial Unices but such systems were way too expensive for the average Joe/Jane. Even today, GNU/HURD is not ready for deployment. -- Arun Khan (knura at yahoo dot com) The plot was designed in a light vein that somehow became varicose. -- David Lardner -- http://mm.glug-bom.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxers
