then why Gnu/linux? call it GPL/linux or fs/linux Ely Levy System group Hebrew University Jerusalem Israel
On Fri, 17 Jan 2003, Dan Armak wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > On Friday 17 January 2003 12:51, Ely Levy wrote: > > this argument might had some point a while ago but today ? > > why should it be named gnu/linux and not kde/linux? > > I agree that GNU people did usefull stuff but so did kde/qt people > > and so did X11 people by giving credit to one group we inslult another. > > yea gnu did gcc and few other untilities and so did other groups > > so who would you give credit to first? > > I'm not a member of the JLC (for geographical reasons :-), but would like to > express my opinion. I can't say what Amichai's intentions are; the following > is what _I_ would read into a gnu/linux rename. > > IMO Ely's argument above isn't wrong, but it is misapplied. The gnu/linux > naming issue is not simply about giving credit anymore, with all the publicty > it gets (more than many other issues rms uses to talk about). It's about > declaring for rms's free software philosophy, as opposed to linus's 'use what > works' approach. (And people who think of themselves as 'neutral' usually > find themselves in the 2nd category.) This is an ideological and political > statement, really. > > If it was just about giving credit, people wouldn't IMHO react so strongly to > this suggestion. When someone calls his system 'redhat' or 'mandrake' instead > of 'redhat linux' noone really minds it, although the distributor/packager > arguably deserve less credit than Linus, rms, or the kde developers. On kde > mailing lists developers talk of 'kde systems' (not even qt/kde). Even with > debian who insist on being completely free and calling their distro > gnu/linux, I don't think (?) there's a problem with shortening the name to > 'debian' casually. The 'kde and x11 deserve credit too' argument is valid in > those situations. But say 'a linux system' in front of rms or one of his > disciples and he'll cut you short with an explanation about why gnu/linux is > the proper thing to say. > > rms doesn't care about credit that much more than any other free software > developer. The gnu/linux issue is about recognition and support of the gnu's > philosophy and policy. It's also about educating the masses, now that there > are linux 'masses' of a sort, about the gnu and the free software philosophy, > which is important because their fight for freedom is going on, and it's our > fight, too. (Mandatory usage of ms software in various places, things like > the dmca, the riaa, the decss case, ....). > > By naming something gnu/linux you're not insulting anyone, beacuse you are not > making the statement that the gnu utilities and the linux kernel are the only > parts of your system that matter. Rather, you are making the statement that > you use all that free software on your machine not just because it's what > gets the job done, but because its freedom has an intrinsical value to you. > > If Amichai means to 'give credit' to the gnu developers then I'd agree that > renaming the lug is probably the wrong way to go about it. But I hope he > meant something more like what I describe :-) > > Well, that's my personal opinion, for what it's worth... > > - -- > 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+J+vrUI2RQ41fiVERAi+JAJ97VtlU488SEnSHEIEreWfapZK3+QCfTdRT > aqjRwUj8oCNVO4i6KU9vdXo= > =4D/O > -----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] > > ================================================================= 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]
