Re: A purely GNU system?
Hi Andreas, On Sat, 2019-11-09 at 22:55 +0100, Andreas Enge wrote: > On Sat, Nov 09, 2019 at 03:15:16PM -0600, Joel Sherrill wrote: > > Is glibc purely GNU? It borrows code from a variety of sources and > > was not written completely from scratch. (Although there are many > > parts which are unique to glibc, too.) > > What about GNU tar? It started out as pdtar. > > GCC shares a lot of libraries and components with other projects which are > > not > > necessarily GNU. > > Thanks for your replies! Indeed, the pleasure of free software - we > can "remix"! And while remixing we might make things more GNU :) I think what is interesting is how we remix to create GNU. What we (re)use, what we reject, and why. Take GNU linux-libre [1] or GNU IceCat [2] for example. Are those "purely GNU"? That is probably the wrong question. What is interesting is why it is necessary to have GNU "forks" of those projects. How we define our relationship with the "upstream" projects. And how we influence and cooperate with similar projects like the Debian free Linux kernel [3] or the PureOS PureBrowser [4]. Cheers, Mark [1] https://www.gnu.org/software/linux-libre [2] https://www.gnu.org/software/icecat [3] https://www.debian.org/News/2010/20101215 [4] https://puri.sm/posts/the-four-browser-freedoms/
Re: A purely GNU system?
On Sat, Nov 09, 2019 at 03:15:16PM -0600, Joel Sherrill wrote: > Is glibc purely GNU? It borrows code from a variety of sources and > was not written completely from scratch. (Although there are many > parts which are unique to glibc, too.) > What about GNU tar? It started out as pdtar. > GCC shares a lot of libraries and components with other projects which are not > necessarily GNU. Thanks for your replies! Indeed, the pleasure of free software - we can "remix"! Andreas
Re: A purely GNU system?
* Andreas Enge: > Now, some musing, which motivated me to change the subject line into > a new thread: I am wondering how functional a system is that > contains only GNU packages? It will lack a graphical environment, > but with grub, hurd, glibc and all other low level projects and the > toolchain, emacs, it looks to me as if we still have a functional > system. Or am I missing something? Is glibc purely GNU? It borrows code from a variety of sources and was not written completely from scratch. (Although there are many parts which are unique to glibc, too.) What about GNU tar? It started out as pdtar.
Re: A purely GNU system?
The influence of the GNU project is mainly philosophy, not on technical merit -- though that is a huge part as well. I suggest you take some time and read the philosophic section of the GNU project. Or the excellent book, Free Software, Free Society -- you can get it from the FSF. That is where the majority of influence comes from, ultimately seeing that we have a free system.
Re: A purely GNU system?
On Sat, Nov 09, 2019 at 08:33:13AM -0500, Alfred M. Szmidt wrote: > A purley GNU system includes, by defintion, non-GNU packages -- see > the GNU manifesto. This again is a misunderstanding as to what the > GNU system and the GNU project are. I am not sure whether you have read the text beyond the subject line. My question was this: I am wondering how functional a system is that contains only GNU packages? It was just out of curiosity, and not of major importance. At the same time, it measures the "influence" of the GNU project on the GNU system. For instance, if all GNU packages were replaced by other software, the GNU project would be reduced to an agency providing a label (or maybe not even that). Andreas
Re: A purely GNU system? (Was: A GNU “social contract”?)
A purley GNU system includes, by defintion, non-GNU packages -- see the GNU manifesto. This again is a misunderstanding as to what the GNU system and the GNU project are.
