Open source -- non computer topics (Debian)

From: Ryan Underwood <nemesis-lists_at_icequake.net>
Date: Thu Apr 25 13:18:58 2002

> The entire world has voted. The name is "Linux", not "GNU/Linux".

I'm not preaching Stallman. What I said is that the better part of the Debian
community has chosen to give GNU credit in the system. You can disagree
with it, and that is fine! The world+dog does not have to think Stallman
is the icon of open source. Go ahead and edit your /etc/issue if it's that
big a deal.

At the risk of being a pedant, Debian is not a Linux operating system; it
is designed to be a universal operating system, that can use any Unix-like
kernel at its core. Debian is being bootstrapped on BSD and Hurd currently.
The core of Debian is GNU system utilities and the Debian policy and package
system, which is why the kernel name is prefixed by Debian and GNU.

Redhat, Mandrake, etc don't bother, because they are Linux systems, and ONLY
Linux systems. They will never be anything else, thus "Redhat Linux" and
"Mandrake Linux" are fine titles; they indicate what the system aspires to
be.

That's the pragma behind it, it's not giving into Stallman's demands and
such, it's just a choice behind the user and developer community that "This
is how we want to present our system as installed by default." They're not
twisting anyone's arm.

-- 
Ryan Underwood, <nemesis at icequake.net>, icq=10317253
Received on Thu Apr 25 2002 - 13:18:58 BST

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