[lug] Stallman on Linux vs GNU/Linux (fwd)

Sean Reifschneider jafo at tummy.com
Mon Oct 16 22:30:17 MDT 2000


On Mon, Oct 16, 2000 at 09:38:08AM -0600, J. Wayde Allen wrote:
>This might be an interesting read for anyone interested in Richard
>Stallman's viewpoint on Linux and free software.

Why do I think that he wouldn't be complaining if it were being referred to
as "Hurd" instead of "GNU Hurd"?  ;-)

His argument that "Linux" doesn't convey the history of "GNU" is odd.  If
you know the history of Linux, you probably know how much it has relied on
GNU tools.

If the GNU project deserves "top billing" credit for it's work, who else
does?  What percentage of software installed on the typical Linux machine
is from the GNU project?  Is it 30%?  What portion of functionality is
provided by GNU software?  Depends on the user you ask, I suspect.  Where
do we stop?

"I've got a problem with my Redhat Samba Apache Gnome Enlightenment SSLeay
GNU Berkeley GPL Cygnus Ghostscript GTK Troll SGI AT&T Netscape CRNI MIT
Linux (tm) box."

On the one hand, I understand that this is an important issue to Stallman.
On the other, it makes one wonder how much of it is simply ego-building...

Sean
-- 
 If we don't survive, we don't do anything else.
                 -- John Sinclair
Sean Reifschneider, Inimitably Superfluous <jafo at tummy.com>
tummy.com - Linux Consulting since 1995. Qmail, KRUD, Firewalls, Python




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