Re: Linux isn't an operating system

Ralph Loader (loader@maths.ox.ac.uk)
Thu, 7 Mar 1996 10:15:56 GMT


>> But aside from being unfair (which by itself would not be worth
>> fussing about), it also tends to split the community and thus
>> discourage communication and cooperation. When the people who use
>> what is essentially the GNU system think of themselves as "Linux
>> users", and not as "GNU users", often they don't see a reason
>> cooperate with the people who maintain the GNU software. This leads
>> to version-skew and unnecessary incompatibility.

>
> [various people flaming RMS]
>

Do we really need this flame-war? As far as I can see, RMS was asking for
a certain recognition of the amount of GNU stuff on systems running a Linux
kernel. Personally, I think that's a small price to pay for GCC, emacs,
GNU make, bash, groff etc. etc.

Some people might find that too big a price to pay, and think that RMS is
being pedantic, patronising or a prick. That doesn't make comments along
the lines of ``RMS is a ...'' at all helpful. Maybe he needs to get a
life. Big deal. Sometimes I suspect that a lot of people on this list
need to get a life.

Ralph, happy owner of a Linux/GNU system, whatever you want to call it.