Re: Difference between Unix and Linux?

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Article #4363

#4363

From: Robert Uhl ruhl
Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2002 15:57

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Sami Sihvonen <ss@janiika.com> writes:
> 
> Linux is only kernel.  About 3% of full operating system.  And you
> simply can't do anything with that kernel unless you add something
> to it.

That's odd.  Somehow, glibc manages to do something.  In fact, if one
wanted, one could do _everything_ one wanted using the kernel.

> Those things people call "Linux" usually are GNU/Linux with a lot of
> GNU Project material.

I'm not going to debate that Linux is generally Linux + a large number
of GNU utilities.  What I will debate is that GNU/Linux is a
usefully meaningful term, or indeed aught other than sour grapes.  The
OS is Linux.  Let me repeat: the OS is Linux.  The userland is GNU,
certainly, but THE OS IS LINUX!

> You should give credits where they belong, even if you hate them. 
> And why you hate Free Software Foundation? Have they not helped
> your everyday hacking?

I like the GNU project, and the FSF.  I use the GPL for my work, and
believe in free software.  I don't believe in griping.  Everyone knows
that the GPL deserves credit for Linux's success.  Everyone knows the
the GNU project deserves credit for Linux's success.  Due to these
two, Linux has the best userland experience of any Unix or Unix-like
OS.

What I don't like is silly quibbling and grabbing at more credit than
is deserved.  GNU/Linux sounds and looks like GNU Linux--which implies
that Linux is part of the GNU project.  It is AFAIK not.  The GNU
project did not write the code in Linux; it has, rather, spent the
last more-than-a-decade writing the HURD.  Which might someday be
useful, and could indeed be called GNU HURD, GNU/HURD. GNU^HURD or
anything else.

-- 
Robert Uhl <ruhl@4dv.net>
It is possible to be so openminded that one's brains come spilling out.
                                                      --Flavio Carillo

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Subject: Re: Difference between Unix and Linux?
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From: ruhl@4dv.net (Robert Uhl <ruhl@4dv.net>)
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