Why is Fedora not a Free GNU/Linux distributions?
Gordon Messmer
yinyang at eburg.com
Tue Jul 15 22:28:58 UTC 2008
Les Mikesell wrote:
> Gordon Messmer wrote:
>>>
>>> A rare bit of honesty there:
>>>
>>> "In 2008, we found that GNU packages made up 15% of the “main”
>>> repository of the gNewSense GNU/Linux distribution. Linux made
>>> up 1.5%. So the same argument would apply even more strongly
>>> to calling it “Linux”
>>
>> You're reading it incorrectly, by leaving out the question:
>>
>> GNU is a small fraction of the system nowadays, so why should we
>> mention it?
>>
>> GNU is arguing, in the quote you posted, that if it is inappropriate
>> to include GNU in the name for a GNU/Linux distribution, then it is
>> even more strongly inappropriate to call it "Linux". Linux is a much
>> smaller and less significant portion of a GNU/Linux distribution than
>> GNU is.
>
> It's not an either/or question. They are right that it is inappropriate
> but in both cases, not just the straw man they set up. Call it Fedora,
> call it freebsd, call it OpenSolaris, and leave politics out of it.
I don't think that they're arguing at all that it's inappropriate to
call it GNU/Linux. They're illustrating that the argument which is
often used for calling a system Linux -- that GNU is a small component
of a typical GNU/Linux distribution -- is a ridiculous argument, since
Linux is a much smaller component of the distribution.
Certainly, I have no objections referring to Red Hat's community
distribution as "Fedora", but when referring to distributions of
GNU/Linux systems in general or in aggregate, I do try to use the
appropriate name.
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