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SubjectRe: GNU/Linux
On Sun, Mar 28, 1999 at 09:33:27PM -0800, Jakob 'sparky' Kaivo wrote:
> That's not what he is saying. The name of the kernel is and has always
> been Linux (except for in Linus's mind when he was toying with Freax or
> something similar). That's the kernel. The complete operating system is
> in fact generally a GNU operating system, but with a Linux kernel rather

I really don't care what you want to call Linux , but the
term "operating system" has a standard meaning in the technical literature
and I wish Richard Stallman would not try to invent a new meaning.
Tanenbaum's well known textbook (OS Design and Implementation, 1987)
repeats the cannonical definition:
"the software that securely abstracts and multiplexes physical resources"
(You could argue that it is more of a vain hope than a "definition")
This definition, or some similar variant, has been used for 40 years or more
and can even be found in the Oxford English Dictionary.
Richard Stallman wants to make a distinction between the "kernel" and the
"operating system", but in many years of reading the OS literature, I have
never ever seen anyone but Richard include such things as a compiler
construction tool and a data plot program as part of an "operating system".
Perhaps Richard is confused by the standard practice of bundling an OS with
a typical set of tools. But MS Windows is MS Windows even if it comes with
gcc and Gmake, and Mach is Mach even with Apple's GUI on its (as the poet
once noted, one thing you can't hide, is when you are crippled inside).
MVS is even still MVS even with a POSIX API and standard UNIX tools.

> The main thing is to make the distinction between
> one piece of software (in this case the kernel) and the entire operating
> system. There is a big difference.

Only in Stallmanese. Richard may have a valid point to make, or he may just be
trying to get people to keep cheering him after he has stopped doing productive
work, but it is incontestable that he is misusing and confusing the language.

By the way: the GNU tools are implementations of the standard AT&T tools
that came with UNIX. The authors of make/sh/find/cc/awk etc. deserve the main
credit for such a rich and adaptable set of tools and the designer of UNIX
deserve enormous credit for coming up with a API that encouraged the development
of those programs.


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