GNU/Linux (Was:Re: The Hurd / Stupid Diskussion / Difference between OS + Operating Environement)

[Georg Jakob]

Hi,

On Wed, 20 Mar 2002, Frank Heckenbach kindly wrote:

--snip--
> > This statement is rather old. I do not think it is to the point, anyway:
> > The Linux Kernel was and is compiled with gcc.
> 
> That's exactly M E Leypold's point #3, and I agree with him that
> this would be silly. I haven't seen any case where a program was
> named after the tools used to create it. What if I write a
> completely protable C program, should I call it
> GNU/Sun/Borland/Microsoft/<insert other C compiler makers>/HelloWorld? ;-)

Linus created Linux because he couldn't afford a propritary Unix. That 
aside:

It is not just about tools. It is about feedom. It is not about having 
a compiler. It is about having a free (beer & speech) compiler.

It is about running a free shell (bash) on top of the kernel you created 
with that compiler. An editor. A start, from which you can continue (at 
least theoretically) without Minix.

It is about the GPL - to make the kernel as free as the tools you created 
it with.

Oh wait - I am wrong - those are all tools. And the many things provided 
by GNU the Linux kernel comes with today to create an operating system. 
Logically, you can reduce them as being "just tools".

And even the awareness that has been created by GNU and the HURD Project, 
the awareness that it would be good to have a free OS that made developers 
join Linus. Just another tool.

But you should *know* that's not the whole truth. 


-- 
kindest regards,         jack at unix.sbg.ac.at
Georg Jakob              http://www.users.sbg.ac.at/~jack
"After explaining the situation to the machine clearly with appropriate
 use of a screwdriver and cleaning up I got the update to behave." (A. Cox)