The Hurd

[Werner Koch]

On Tue, 19 Mar 2002 00:37:29 +0100, Frank Heckenbach said:

> "Almost everything" is not really true. Even today, the GNU system
> uses a substantial number of components from BSD, X, TeX, etc. You

And that was the plan nearly from the start of the GNU project.  The
GNU project never said that all software has to be written from
scratch for it; it just turned out that a lot of stuff needed to
be written due to a lack of existing free implementations. 

Afaik, BSD moved to a free license after the launch of the GNU
project.

> hostile towards GNU. I can see why the FSF thinks it's getting too
> little credit, and I also think so often. But the way you try to

The main reason for using the term GNU/Linux is to stress the
importance of Freedom because this is for what GNU stands.

The FSF never demanded credit for her work on the GNU system.
However, thousands of developers worked on the GNU project for many
years (and different motivations) - they deserve at least some credit.

> developers really called it "GNU/Linux", someone like Alessandro
> Rubini would have to speak of "GNU/Linux", even though his system
> uses only the kernel Linux and no GNU parts. So please, get

I don't understand this.  If you are using just the bare bone Linux
kernel, the name Linux is what should be used.  I usually add "kernel"
to make clear what I am talking about; much like I would say "the sdcc 
compiler".

> I hope the next one will be better researched.

The Hurd is based on a lot of research.

> Frank Heckenbach, frank at g-n-u.de
> http://fjf.gnu.de/

So much GNU, so less GNU/Linux ;-)


  Werner