Messages in this thread | | | Date | Tue, 5 Mar 1996 22:37:28 -0500 | From | Richard Stallman <> | Subject | Linux isn't an operating system |
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on NASA TV last week indicate that computers running under the Linux operating system are being used on STS-75. Linux is powerful 32-bit multiuser, multitasking operating system similar to Unix in many ways except cost and licensing....
Linux was designed a few short years ago by Linus Torvalds, a graduate...
This article makes a common mistake: confusing the whole operating system with the kernel. Linus Torvalds wrote the kernel, Linux. A whole operating systems consists of Linux and many other programs, which were written by a great many people.
There are a number of whole operating systems using the Linux kernel, Most of them are more or less close variants of the GNU system, so I recommend the term "Linux-based GNU system" for them.
I'm going to talk to the author of the article about this distinction.
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