user 'freedom' (was RE: [thelist] Site check: Staples.com)

[Shawn K. Quinn]

On Wed, 2005-09-21 at 13:46 +1000, Robert Gormley wrote:
> Shawn K. Quinn wrote:
> > On Tue, 2005-09-20 at 17:09 -0700, Anthony Ettinger wrote:
> >
> >   
> >> From your source above:
> >>
> >> Linux 
> >>     
> >
> > For future reference, it's GNU/Linux. (And yes I realize you didn't
> > write the original article.)
> >
> >   
> >> differs from both Windows and Mac OS in that it is an open source
> >>     
> >
> > Wrong. GNU is a free software operating system. Richard Stallman has
>    
> With apologies for multiple replies. GNU is NOT an operating system, or 
> rather, it is not Linux. And stating it as such is extremely misleading.

GNU *is* the operating system that people are mistakenly calling
"Linux".

> Unless, of course, you care to point out the announcement that marked 
> the moving of the various Linux distributions to being under the GNU 
> umbrella/name?

What they call a "Linux distribution" is useless without the GNU
packages they include.

Remember this old riddle?

Q: How many legs does a horse have if you call its tail a leg?
A: Four. Calling its tail a leg doesn't make it one.

By the same token:

Q: Is GNU really the operating system even if it's called a "Linux
distribution" with no mention of GNU?
A: Yes. Not giving credit where credit is due doesn't change what's
really in a distribution.

> The closest thing GNU has to an operating system is a kernel called Hurd 
> which has been under development for the last quarter of a century and 
> has yet to release a stable release.

You don't grasp the difference between an operating system and a kernel.
GNU has been ported to run under several different kernels, Linux is
just one of them.

-- 
Shawn K. Quinn <skquinn at speakeasy.net>