Re: Project name
Lalo Martins wrote:
> [#include <not.subscribed.to.this.list.please.cc.replies.h>]
>
> I don't know if this was discussed already (I did search the
> archives), but the name "Debian GNU/Hurd" is veeery wrong :-)
>
> "GNU/Linux" essentially means "GNU system with Linux dumped in
> as the kernel"; Hurd is implied in a "true" GNU system. For
> those mathematically inclined, {1,2,3} + {1} = {1,2,3}.
> Maybe this is nitpicking, but "Debian GNU" looks much nicer
> doesn't it?
I don't think so.
(Note: I'm politically incorrect, and dislike the "strong-arm" techniques that
have been used to promote the use of "GNU/Linux;" after seeing umpteen
interviews and hearing RMS in person do what I can only, disappointedly,
regard as "whine" about this, I am not very apologetic about my feelings. Had
he suggested the idea a little more graciously, rather than what can only be
interpreted as "demanding" it, people would not be so vigorously opposed to
the name.)
At any rate, RMS regards a system that runs "a bunch of GNU software" atop the
Linux kernel as a "GNU system." Thus being a "GNU system" does not
necessarily require Hurd's involvement. Furthermore, for a while yet, it is
unlikely that the use of Hurd will be so widespread as to allow people to
*assume* that because a system is "GNU" that it must be using Hurd. It is
thus useful to identify the "Hurdness" of the system.
--
Christopher B. Browne, cbbrowne@hex.net, chris_browne@sabre.com
Web: http://www.ntlug.org/~cbbrowne SAP Basis Consultant, UNIX Guy
Windows NT - How to make a 100 MIPS Linux workstation perform like an 8 MHz 286
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