🚀 go-pugleaf

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Russ Allbery <rra@stanford.edu> wrote:
> In gnu.misc.discuss, Sami Sihvonen <ss@janiika.com> writes:
>> ruhl@4dv.net (Robert Uhl <ruhl@4dv.net>) wrote:
>
>>> It was stated that a Linux system is impossible without the GNU
>>> utilities. Having shown that this is false, you change the tack,
>>> arguing that all actual usable Linux systems are distributed with GNU
>>> utilities.  Well, duh.
>
>> Please do post a screen capture where you compile Linux-kernel 
>> without any GNU-tools (including GNU GCC, GNU Make etc...).
>
> He's got a point here, folks.  Linux only builds with GCC.  It's been
> intentionally written that way, and makes extensive use of GCC-only
> extensions.
>
> I don't think his larger point is correct, but Linux the kernel is
> *not* usable without GCC without extensive work to remove all of the
> GCC-specific code, something that Linus has stated repeatedly that
> he thinks would be incredibly dumb and sees no point whatsoever in
> doing.

This claim actually isn't true any longer.  

Linux can be compiled with Intel's C++ compiler which is NOT GCC.

<http://www.intel.com/software/products/compilers/c60l/techtopics/LinuxCompilersCompatibility60.pdf>

"The 6.0 release of the Intel C++ compiler has improved support for
the GNU C extensions and is now able to build the Linux kernel with
minor work arounds for both the IA-32 and Itanium architectures."

The claim that "Linux only builds with GCC" is, based on this, an
incorrect claim.  And so the point that "the kernel is not usable
without GCC" is an invalid point.

I see little likelihood that people will be en masse adopting Intel
C++ 6.0 as their compiler for Linux.

But the fact remains that Linux does _NOT_ "only build with GCC," and
this sure does undermine that (increasingly false) claim that building
a Linux system is "impossible" without the GNU utilities.
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