> There are many other reasons to prefer the GNU tools both >technical and political. But that is completely NOT the point. The point >is that *I* want the GNU tools because *I* think that they are better. >So why can't I have them and the Debian package system and the FreeBSD >kernel? Isn't that what freedoms all about? The freedom to choose.
Considering they are *only* packages there is nothing preventing someone from making packages containing the bsd tools instead of the gnu ones. Besides, citing that cp file1 file2 -R only works in gnu is not much of a datapoint. Last time I tried gnu du it didnt take a -d for depth, only --max-depth or something else similar. Both could be patched to work indistinguishably regarding these slight differences. Neither instance provides a distinct advantage over the other, simply a difference in convention. They both *work*.
