that old GNU/Linux argument
Alexandre Oliva
aoliva at redhat.com
Tue Jul 22 06:02:17 UTC 2008
On Jul 21, 2008, Tim <ignored_mailbox at yahoo.com.au> wrote:
> Software for Linux = Linux software.
By this reasoning, reading Linus' first announcement of Linux, you'd
conclude that Linux is a GNU kernel.
> That's how the English language works.
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/Historic/old-versions/RELNOTES-0.01
Sadly, a kernel by itself gets you nowhere. To get a working system you
need a shell, compilers, a library etc. These are separate parts and
may be under a stricter (or even looser) copyright. Most of the
tools used with linux are GNU software
[...]
Linus Torvalds "torvalds at kruuna.helsinki.fi"
You may also note the "These are separate parts", "used with linux".
I.e., not part of linux. linux is the kernel.
So, anyone who insists in naming Linux all of the GNU operating system
used with the kernel Linux is contradicting the primary developer of
GNU and the primary developer of Linus.
--
Alexandre Oliva http://www.lsd.ic.unicamp.br/~oliva/
Free Software Evangelist oliva@{lsd.ic.unicamp.br, gnu.org}
FSFLA Board Member ¡Sé Libre! => http://www.fsfla.org/
Red Hat Compiler Engineer aoliva@{redhat.com, gcc.gnu.org}
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