LWN.net Logo

How much GNU is there in GNU/Linux?

How much GNU is there in GNU/Linux?

Posted Jun 1, 2011 16:05 UTC (Wed) by thumperward (guest, #34368)
In reply to: How much GNU is there in GNU/Linux? by donbarry
Parent article: How much GNU is there in GNU/Linux?

That's as may be, and I've never seen anyone contradict it. However, that's not the FSF's position, which is that the use of GNU's compiler, shell, and the various userspace utilities which made up GNU's output in the early 90s constitutes the labelling of the resultant system as a "variant of GNU". The reason those things were used back in the day was that they compiled on the 386 and were available for nothing. Until it became obvious that Linux was the best vector for getting the FSF's message across, it was commonly understood that the two were orthogonal. That this is no longer commonly understood is not because it were never true, but rather because the FSF has spent nearly two decades attempting to obscure this.


(Log in to post comments)

How much GNU is there in GNU/Linux?

Posted Jun 3, 2011 14:53 UTC (Fri) by vonbrand (subscriber, #4458) [Link]

Then why didn't RMS insist that it be called GNU/Solaris? All Sun machines I saw did have gcc as their choice C compiler, and ran assorted packages from a collection of GNU (and other) software packaged for its awfull package system... What about DG/UX (Data General's Unix), where the official C compiler was gcc, as were the development tools, and AFAIR much of the userland also, came directly from GNU? That was the state of the art Unix system in the 90's, much as today it's a Linux kernel beneath essentially the same sort of mix of applications from a variety of sources...

Copyright © 2013, Eklektix, Inc.
Comments and public postings are copyrighted by their creators.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds