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SubjectRe: [OFFTOPIC] Re: Article: IBM wants to "clean up the license" of Linux
Date
In message <199812221034.SAA05843@typhaon.ucs.uwa.edu.au>, David Luyer writes:
cc: linux-kernel@vger.rutgers.edu

[snip]

> But how about GNU and Linus? Well, Linus named the OS kernel Linux,
> quite rightly since it was his kernel. GNU, who contributed more code
> towards the environment which made Linux possible than anyone else - well,
> they get mostly ignored by users, and their ideology is forgotten. How
> important is this? Well that's what the recurring flame war is about.
> There are those who look shallowly, and say that GNU has nothing to do with
> Linux - they didn't write Netscape, X11 or the Kernel. Hey, gcc, gdb, make,
> emacs, bash, etc... who needs them? :-) (only a very small portion of the
> GNU applications most Linux applications depend on of course). Even the
> Linux libc has always been based on GNU code. So RMS would prefer if, at
> the distribution level, people put the name 'GNU' in there to remind
> themselves that a significant portion of the code they are using comes from
> GNU.

Evidently you have not noticed the name GNU appears frequently while using
Linux. I strongly disagree that the FSF/GNU is ignored. Stallmans
insistence on renaming Linux GNU Linux is patently nothing more than an
ego trip on his part. While I have appreciated the *results* of the FSF
efforts, I utterly *reject* their "ideology". I really do wish Stallman
would shut up about an ideology the people of the world have rejected and
has been proven to be a total failure.

> (In fact, a great deal more than comes from Linux.) Not unreasonable.
> (irrespective of what you think of RMS's ideologies and political views, it
> is not unreasonable to refer to distributions as GNU/Linux when such a large
> portion of the Linux project has been vitally dependent on the results of the
> GNU project.)

What you don't say here is the simple fact that it is *stupid* to recode
what the FSF had already done. Linux is *not* dependent upon GNU/FSF.
What dependencies there are are there by convenience not by necessity.

[snip]

Bob


--
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| Bob Taylor Email: brtaylor@inreach.com |
|---------------------------------------------------------------|
| Like the ad says, at 300 dpi you can tell she's wearing a |
| swimsuit. At 600 dpi you can tell it's wet. At 1200 dpi you |
| can tell it's painted on. I suppose at 2400 dpi you can tell |
| if the paint is giving her a rash. (So says Joshua R. Poulson)|
+---------------------------------------------------------------+



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