🚀 go-pugleaf

In an attempt to throw the authorities off his trail, Sami Sihvonen <ss@janiika.com> transmitted:
> In article <agfskd$pa9$5@news.doit.wisc.edu>,
> Steve Mading <madings@baladi.bmrb.wisc.edu> wrote:
>
>> Do you call a metal car "a metal"? So why call a set of software
>> containing a lot of GNU a "GNU"?
>
> That piece of Linux Kernel is only the Engine in this car some
> people wrongly call as "Linux". You won't call a car like Seat
> Toledo that uses Volksvagen-labeled engines as Volksvagen, you call
> it Seat Toledo. Bigger things are more important, with GNU/Linux it
> is all those stuff made by GNU Project that make it work.

.. But what _in fact_ happens is that the distributors call their
systems things like:

 a) Red Hat Linux 7.3
 b) Mandrake Linux 8.2
 c) SuSE Linux 8.3
 c) Debian GNU/Linux 2.2

Not one of them, not even the one that includes "GNU" in the name,
calls the resulting system "GNU/Linux."

The situation doesn't perfectly parallel any situation with an
automobile, as car makers generally _don't_ use the same engine
vendors.

When you continue to focus on this issue, all you do is to demonstrate
that you are more concerned about the past than you are about the
future.

There are surely much more important issues than focusing peoples'
attention on the fact that the FSF never did construct or release a
working "GNU system."

I'm sure that the FSF could have come up with a "recognition campaign"
along the lines of:
  "We're so glad about the success of free software, particularly in
  the context of systems associated with Linux.  It couldn't have been
  accomplished without GNU software like [this, that, other thing].
  Please contribute, as this can lead to further success."

I'm sure that such a campaign could have raised awareness, drawn
people towards the FSF, and even raised money.

But apparently it seems of infinite wisdom for the campaign to be to
bash people that call it "Linux," thereby encouraging people to think
of the FSF as a bunch of bitter losers.  True or not, that perception
_is_ out there, and is a consequence of the "GNU/Linux" debate.
-- 
(concatenate 'string "cbbrowne" "@ntlug.org")
http://cbbrowne.com/info/advocacy.html
"Cars move huge weights at high speeds by controlling violent
explosions many times a second. ...car analogies are always fatal..."
-- <westprog@my-dejanews.com>