I first like to clarify that I’m a filthy casual with only the most cursory knowledge of computer science. Now, I used to be in the GNU/Linux camp but now I’m rethinking it. Don’t get me wrong, I still deeply appreciate the GNU Project and FSF, but in contemplating it, the only sense I have right now is that the GNU Project was largely responsible for the whole free/libre software movement, and almost all major Linux distributions necessarily use GNU software for its system, especially the coreutils. So, it is not necessarily technically correct to say GNU/Linux, but rather GNU/Linux as the spirit of its free / open-source software roots. So really when I think about it, using the term “GNU/Linux” is an homage, a form of “respect”, rather than a technically accurate term.
When discussing any kind of Linux systems, you have the Linux kernel that use some or lots of GNU code, or no GNU code at all (Alpine comes to mind). Technically speaking though, whenever you use something like Debian or Arch or Fedora, fundamentally it is the Linux kernel, the core of the operating system, distributed with other tools userspace programs, hence Linux distributions. It is a bundle of the Linux kernel with everything else there shipped with it.
If I were to use an operating system entirely made by the GNU Project, as in GNU with Hurd, then I would call it the GNU OS (or whatever they hypothetically name it), sort of like BSD. If people were to take that GNU OS, ship it with their own modifications and packages, then we can call it a GNU distribution, obviously. But calling the current Linux distributions like Linux or Fedora or SUSE to be GNU/Linux seems “respectful but inaccurate” at best and “misleading or even wrong” at worst, since if we think of contribution, the common argument of calling it GNU/Xorg/KDE/Pipewire/Linux or some other variant of that argument also comes to mind. Why should we prefer adding GNU or Xorg or KDE or GNOME to its name, if it’s just part of the distribution of Linux? The only reason I can think of as mentioned before is the historical element; in that, the GNU Project aimed to create a whole operating system for people to use, and they made the GPL, GCC, glibc, coreutils etc, so it’s “in the spirit of the history of free and open-source software” to call it so.
Fundamentally though, if we were to be technically accurate, we’d probably call it Linux. A Linux distribution is the Linux kernel distributed with other utilities and programs. Am I getting this right?
P.S. I have just come to know that your comment is a common response against the GNU/Linux naming comment. I feel silly now, but I’ve written this long contemplation. Oh well.
Excellent comment, sir/maam!
I first like to clarify that I’m a filthy casual with only the most cursory knowledge of computer science. Now, I used to be in the GNU/Linux camp but now I’m rethinking it. Don’t get me wrong, I still deeply appreciate the GNU Project and FSF, but in contemplating it, the only sense I have right now is that the GNU Project was largely responsible for the whole free/libre software movement, and almost all major Linux distributions necessarily use GNU software for its system, especially the coreutils. So, it is not necessarily technically correct to say GNU/Linux, but rather GNU/Linux as the spirit of its free / open-source software roots. So really when I think about it, using the term “GNU/Linux” is an homage, a form of “respect”, rather than a technically accurate term.
When discussing any kind of Linux systems, you have the Linux kernel that use some or lots of GNU code, or no GNU code at all (Alpine comes to mind). Technically speaking though, whenever you use something like Debian or Arch or Fedora, fundamentally it is the Linux kernel, the core of the operating system, distributed with other tools userspace programs, hence Linux distributions. It is a bundle of the Linux kernel with everything else there shipped with it.
If I were to use an operating system entirely made by the GNU Project, as in GNU with Hurd, then I would call it the GNU OS (or whatever they hypothetically name it), sort of like BSD. If people were to take that GNU OS, ship it with their own modifications and packages, then we can call it a GNU distribution, obviously. But calling the current Linux distributions like Linux or Fedora or SUSE to be GNU/Linux seems “respectful but inaccurate” at best and “misleading or even wrong” at worst, since if we think of contribution, the common argument of calling it GNU/Xorg/KDE/Pipewire/Linux or some other variant of that argument also comes to mind. Why should we prefer adding GNU or Xorg or KDE or GNOME to its name, if it’s just part of the distribution of Linux? The only reason I can think of as mentioned before is the historical element; in that, the GNU Project aimed to create a whole operating system for people to use, and they made the GPL, GCC, glibc, coreutils etc, so it’s “in the spirit of the history of free and open-source software” to call it so.
Fundamentally though, if we were to be technically accurate, we’d probably call it Linux. A Linux distribution is the Linux kernel distributed with other utilities and programs. Am I getting this right?
P.S. I have just come to know that your comment is a common response against the GNU/Linux naming comment. I feel silly now, but I’ve written this long contemplation. Oh well.
You know this is now part of the copypasta, right?
I just knew it. D’oh! I feel silly now.