Re: [OT] GNU - Linux and Debian.......
> I'm not sure the GNU project produces the majority of Debian, by
> any metric.
I'm pretty sure it doesn't, because by and large "the GNU project"
doesn't produce any software. It provides technical, philosophical,
ethical, and political support to help and encourage the development and
use of Free Software.
Part of that is to provide hosting services for some projects (on
savannah.gnu.org), but that usually doesn't count as "producing".
A GNU software package basically is a software whose author(s) have
decided they'd like to see their name associated with the "GNU", either
because they want to show their support for the GNU movement, or because
they want their software to benefit from the GNU "brand" and get some
publicity from it, or because they wanted to use the savannah.gnu.org
hosting service, or somesuch.
Of course, some software authors might be considered as "GNU coder"
either because they have gotten some money from the FSF at some point,
or because they've spent enormous amounts of efforts writing code almost
exclusively for GNU software.
What the GNU project has done is give a name and a visibility, defined
a set of guidelines (and licenses) and created the expectations that
define both the Open Source and the Free Software movement. It's thanks
to the GNU project that we don't have to suffer nearly as much from
"somewhat Free" licenses (like the idiotic freeware, which still plagues
the Windows world) because people find them nowadays completely
unacceptable. So the GNU project has shaped the world which made Debian
possible, and in this sense can be credited just as much for GNU
packages as for those packages which do not put "GNU" next to their name
(and even for those who refuse the GPL and/or consider the FSF as
dangerous lunatics).
Stefan
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