My take on (GNU/)?Linux Re: [PLUG] Another topic: the PLUG FAQ

Kevin Theobald kevintheobald at vzavenue.net
Sat Nov 22 00:56:01 UTC 2003


Russell Senior writes:

 > I've contributed to this thread alread and I don't want to repeat
 > myself, but I _really_ don't understand why people allow themselves to
 > get worked up about this.

It seems to be the GNU people who get the most worked up.  I heard an
FSF speaker once, who kept referring to "the kernel known as Linux"
and "the GNU operating system."  Once the point had been made, it
just became irritating.

 > The GNU Project contributed to the result,
 > Linus contributed to the result, many others contributed to the
 > result.

Yes, but everyone seems to forget that third part.  The way the FSF
people talk, they did all the work, except this tiny little kernel
part that was tacked on at the end.

When Linus released the first Linux, how much of the non-kernel stuff
had been made by the GNU project and how much had been contributed by
other people?

I think much of this boils down to: what constitutes an operating
system?  Arguing that Emacs is part of the OS is sort of like
Microsoft saying IE is a fundamental part of Windows.

Kevin




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