Re: Article: IBM wants to "clean up the license" of Linux

George Bonser (grep@shorelink.com)
Sat, 19 Dec 1998 16:10:49 -0800 (PST)


On Sat, 19 Dec 1998, Chip Salzenberg wrote:

> According to Aaron Lehmann:
> > I am afraid that large, proprietary companies with intrest in the
> > Linux market will lead to the death of GNU/Linux.
>
> The character of the community will change. But the code will always
> be there, and so recovery will always be possible.

There is no such thing as GNU/Linux at the kernel level, that is more at
the distribution level. If GNU wants to use Linux as their kernel and
build a distribution and call it GNU/Linux, I think that would be great.
Otherwise, they should keep their noses out of other people's products. I
do not see anywhere in the GPL where it says you are required to put GNU/
in front of any product that comes with or was made with GNU tools. If
someone wants to do that (such as Debian has), I say fine, but FSF has no
right to demand that someone do that.

It would be interesting to see a Linux distribution ship with all non-GNU
tools. I think there might be enough BSD stuff to actually do that. Would
RMS want to call that BSD/GNU/Linux?

George Bonser

The Linux "We're never going out of business" sale at an FTP site near you!

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