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Re: To Linux or not to Linux



On Wednesday 31 August 2005 17:29, Marc 'HE' Brockschmidt wrote:
> That's why I don't care if we call our distribution Debian Linux, Debian
> GNU/Linux, Debian GNU or Debian GNU/kFreeBSD (I mean, we provide the
> usual GNU userland for it, right?)

Another interesting point is that if we lambaste people for using "Linux" to 
refer to free operatings systems based on most of GNU, and Linus' kernel, 
we also ought to be careful what we call "GNU", since if you, for instance, 
run Debian, and you say, "I run nothing but GNU" (implying you don't use 
other popular operating systems like FreeBSD, MS Windows or Mac OSX) you're 
just as innaccurate as if you said, "I run nothing but Linux" (implying the 
same thing). 

I see a lot of push for "It's not Linux, it's GNU!"; but that isn't really 
any more accurate, unless you *really are* running GNU. Just something to 
think about. =)

(Personally, I'm usually happy to just call it "Debian" when promoting it's 
use -- we'd still be Debian even if we replaced all GNU software with 
alternative implementations.)

-- 
Wesley J. Landaker <wjl@icecavern.net> <xmpp:wjl@icecavern.net>
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