a long rebuttal to the Linux-is-the-engine fallacy

[Antonio Olivares]

> >> Of course there is.  If you want to help, call it
> GNU/Linux, or
> >> GNU+Linux.  That's all we ask for.
uname -o returns GNU/Linux that is enough.  I won't do it, it speaks for itself.  
> 
> > What will I gain if I do that?  Do I get a prize?
> 
> Feeling good and making for a better world, is there a
> better prize
> than that? :-)

How will that make for a better world?  One person that says I accept the ideals of RMS I will say GNU/Linux now the world is much better.  It is much better for RMS, but for others what does it do for them.  Sooner or later, they will want a piece of the pie :)  GNU/Linux/Xorg/GNOME/KDE/XFCE/..../ and the name will grow very big.  This is a side effect of adding to the name.  The people have accepted it as Linux, sure GNU people deserve credit too, but they already get it by opening a shell terminal and typing the command uname -o.  That should suffice.  

> 
> > I would do it for you, but not for RMS :(
> > Is that fair? 
> 
> Sure.  It doesn't matter whom you do it for. 
> That's not important at
> all.  The important thing is to spread awareness about
> freedom.
It is important.  Because if you were on the side of the road and needed help, people would not stop and help you.  Despite not agreeing with you in many cases, *(GNU/Linux) argument included, I would try to stop and help you.  I would try to even offer you a beer, so that you could be happy.  I do not know RMS personally, but I like the name Linux better and I am not thinking about changing my mind, especially when Fedora is not Free according to the why Fedora is nonFree.  

http://librenix.com/?inode=2312

Also, I agree with many things about Free Software but I do not agree with 

I do not like Apple as a company, old macs were okay, but I do not agree 

FSF launches a denial-of-service attack on Apple's Genius Bars

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10000290-16.html?hhTest=1

A better way would be to encourage users to not buy those Genuis Bars from Apple.  They should also question the takeovers of Mozilla Firefox and the Google agreements to record what sites you visit.  It would better serve to protect the users from such behavior

http://radar.oreilly.com/2006/08/open-source-licenses-are-obsol.html

About DRM and that kind of stuff I agree with FSF, but I do not agree with letting others dictate and record stuff that should be private to oneself.  

> 
> > I think that the FSF is not being fair to Fedora as
> well, when the
> > original question was asked, why was not Fedora a free
> GNU/Linux OS?
> 
> Why isn't the FSF being fair?  Fedora actively refuses
> to take steps
> that would make it a 100% Free distribution, and takes
> steps away from
> that.  How could the FSF recommend and endorse this kind of
> behavior?
Then they should not use the definitions that Fedora has worked hard to construct.  Does that make the FSF any better than the Fedora Project.  
> 
> > gnewSense, BLAG and others did make it
> 
> Sure, and they do take the steps needed.  It's not just
> empty promises
> and reluctance and delays and steps back to balance freedom
> with the
> alleged needs of users not interested in freedom, it's
> hard work to
> put freedom first and try their best to make sure people
> get what they
> expect when they go after a 100% Free distro.  Today, with
> Fedora,
> that's just impossible, and by Fedora's own
> decisions.
Fedora follows all the sh*t rules of not including properietary crap, patented stuff, mp3 codecs, dvd playback shipping software that will not play the stuff *that people want to play*, and they still do not meet the FSF *rules that were copied off from Fedora's Page*.  This does not make sense.  I do not agree with it.  I hate to say that.  
> 
> > Since Fedora is not a truly free GNU/Linux
> Distribution, why shall I
> > call it Fedora GNU/Linux?
> 
> Because it *is* GNU/Linux, even though it has non-Free
> Software added
> to it.
It is not because the GNU people have put that when you run 
$ uname -o

[olivares at localhost ~]$ uname -o
GNU/Linux

But it is not really Free :(.  (according to the FSF)
so argument not valid.  For me IT should simply be Linux no GNU, if FSF does not recognize Fedora's efforts, then Fedora users shall not accept the GNU/ Tagged along.  At least I would not accept it.  It disappoints me :(  

> 
> > Where is the script that I shall run to make my system
> a GNU/Linux system?
> 
> You don't need to run any script to do so, it already
> is a GNU/Linux
> system.  In order to make it a Linux system, you'd have
> to run
> something along the lines of this script (do NOT run it
> unless you
> really know what you're doing ;-)

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html

I found them 
http://www.fsfla.org/svn/fsfla/software/linux-libre/scripts/

Here's one for 2.6.26 kernels
http://www.fsfla.org/svn/fsfla/software/linux-libre/scripts/deblob-2.6.26

#!/bin/sh

#    Copyright (C) 2008 Jeff Moe
#    Copyright (C) 2008 Alexandre Oliva <lxoliva at fsfla.org>
#
#    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
#    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
#    the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
#    (at your option) any later version.
#
#    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
#    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
#    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
#    GNU General Public License for more details.
#
#    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
#    along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
#    Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301 USA
.... removed 

> 
This one here is a joke :)
> #! /bin/sh
> umount /boot
> rm -rf /
> 
> :-)
> 
> -- 

Regards,

Antonio