On Tue, 24 Mar 1998, Bruce Tong wrote:
[...]
>I don't mean to be ignorant here, but if I shouldn't refer to the
>operating system as "Linux", how should I refer to the operating system?
>Does "the Red Hat distribution of Linux", or more simply "RedHat Linux",
>convey the appropriate meaning?
Yes. Red Hat Linux, Caldera OpenLinux, Slackware Linux, and Debian
GNU/Linux are all operating systems.
The reason I think it is important to make a distinction is because each
of these distributions do some things differently. When you recommend
"Linux" to someone, they may have an entirely different experience with
"Linux" if they choose a distribution other than the one you're familiar
with. If they have a bad experience, they're going to associate that
experience with "Linux" and brand all Linux distributions as bad.
Don't think it happens already? Consider the connotation "UNIX" has.
A lot of people just don't like "UNIX" because they had a bad experience
with some variant of UNIX 10 years ago. They don't care that Linux isn't
pure UNIX. They don't care that even the definition of UNIX has changed
in that time. They just don't like "UNIX". Better that they dislike
just Ultrix, or just Solaris, or just HP-UX than "UNIX" in general.
--
Steve Coile
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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