-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Friday 17 January 2003 14:46, you wrote: > in no place I've seen RMS saying that it should be called GNU/linux > cause of idles, I might be wrong but I'm preety sure that his most used > argument is that a lot of gnu programers worked on the system and calling > it linux gives credit only to the guy who made the kernel, > > do you have a written prof to your claim?;)
Yes indeed. See http://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html. In there rms explains that distributions should be named gnu/linux to promote the free software philosophy and to make users aware of the history of gnu and linux; not just to give credit where due, but those who don't know history are condemned to repeat its mistakes. It's a long article though and has no concise summary, so I didn't quote from it. OTOH http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html says: <quote> Q: Why do you call it GNU/Linux and not Linux? A: Most operating system distributions based on Linux as kernel are basically modified versions of the GNU operating system. We began developing GNU in 1984, years before Linus Torvalds started to write his kernel, and we developed a larger part of the resulting system than any other project. In fairness, we ought to get equal mention. Q: Why is this issue important? A: Although the developers of Linux, the kernel, are contributing to the free software community, many of them do not care about freedom. People who think the whole system is Linux tend to get confused and assign to those developers a role in the history of our community which they did not actually play. Then they give inordinate weight to those developers' views. Calling the system GNU/Linux recognizes the role that our idealism played in building our community, and helps the public recognize the practical importance of these ideals. </quote> So according to this, the naming issue is designed both to give credit and to spread the GNU ideas, because the users will realize what these ideas contributed to the existence of their gnu/linux systems. As I said, my personal opinion is that the name of a system/distribution/lug isn't the right place to give credit of this sort (ease of use, with a short name, is more important); but the 2nd purpose, that of spreading the gnu ideas, is important and appropriate. - -- Dan Armak Matan, Israel Public GPG key: http://www.gentoo.org/~danarmak/danarmak-gpg-public.key -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQE+KAPrUI2RQ41fiVERAgaWAJ98SQsMAg4kxlMFF0uusChQFzmPhQCaAyhd oUhL4zHHKzUSZ739WdO6q14= =2gTE -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ================================================================To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
