that old GNU/Linux argument

[Thomas Cameron]

On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 02:48 +0200, Björn Persson wrote:
> Mark Haney wrote:
> > Personally, I think the demand by Stallman, and others to call Linux
> > 'GNU/Linux' is just stupid and childish.
> 
> What exactly is it that you don't want to call "GNU/Linux"? What pieces of 
> software does it contain?
> 
> Is Udev part of what you call Linux?

udev is not a GNU project.

> Is Yum part of what you call Linux?

Yum is not a GNU project.

> Is Apache HTTPD part of what you call Linux?

Apache is not a GNU project.

> Is Sylpheed part of what you call Linux?

Sylpheed is not a GNU project.

The reality is that a modern Linux distribution contains code from the
*BSD projects, from the Apache project, from ISC, and from a ton of
other projects and groups.  Should we call it "GNU/Apache/BSD/Kitchen
Sink/Linux?"  That's just silly.

The core of the distribution is the kernel, called Linux.  It is
perfectly fair and reasonable to call it plain old "Linux."  I don't
really get riled up at the folks who write it as GNU/Linux, but I think
they are being silly, and not attributing all the other fine projects
which have contributed code.

Thomas