On Tue, 3 Sep 2002, Jonathan Walther wrote: > For the record, the operating system is GNU, Linux is the kernel. It is > only out of extreme politeness and bending over backwards that RMS has > compromised on the term GNU/Linux.
The OS kernel is Linux, many of the OS utilities are GNU, including the excellent development utilities, but a significant number of OS applications are non-GNU, like apache, perl, sendmail, xfree86, kde, etc. > By rights we should all be saying > GNU *except* when referring specifically to the Linux kernel. Or when referring to the non-GNU apps that ship with most distributions. Personally, I believe that even if there are several non-GNU apps that come with GNU/Linux distributions, we should still call the OS "GNU/Linux" or "Linux/GNU" if only to ensure that the event that someone might take this OS or parts of it, or modifications of it, and make it commercial, never happens. But this is actually happening under our noses, as in the case of the PDA companies WindStone (Korea) and LinuxDA (China/Taiwan?). Both companies use Linux for their PDA/OS but neither one would give out the source code except at commercial prices. RMS is just one person and can not run after all these companies. BTW, has the GPL ever been invoked in an actual court case and has it ever won? PMana _ Philippine Linux Users Group. Web site and archives at http://plug.linux.org.ph To leave: send "unsubscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to the Linux Newbies' List: send "subscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
