Ok. How many times did it happen to you that whenever you say “Linux” referring to Linux Distro or Linux as an OS in general, some righteous-grammar nazi pops out of nowhere only to correct you by pointing out the obvious and the annoying fact that “Linux is actually a kernel”...
Full story »
lozz
15 years 21 weeks 5 days 22 min ago
STFU??
I'm not sure what STFU means, but an article can only be as good as its references. This article cites ten definitions of "Linux" of which only four bother to mention Linus Torvalds and exactly none make any reference to Richard Stallman.
The author would also be well advised to avoid citing M$-Encarta when attempting to define, "Linux". Encarta is about as useless as any other M$ product, on its best days, and asking it about "Linux" doesn't provide one of those.
Correctly making reference to GNU/Linux removes all of this angst.
crimperman
15 years 21 weeks 2 days 17 hours ago
STFU
STFU is an acronym for Shut The F*** Up - I shall not post what the F stands for but if you are familiar with RTFM then it's the same word.
Aside from that I agree with you. The author's argument seems to be that because the word Linux is generally defined as an OS, it means the OS. I've encountered many people who refer to the image on the back of a computer desktop as a "screensaver" - does that mean I should stop using it in its original meaning?
stargrave
15 years 21 weeks 4 days 19 hours ago
References
I am sure that author soon will write an article about hackers. That hackers is a security cracker. Maybe he knows that it is not true, but he will say "why can't we use one word to describe two word together?". How do you think - is it nice to hear that people call you criminal when they hear that you a hacker? So, everything is applicable to GNU developers. Is it nice for them that a huge number of peoples use their operating system, but nobody knows what GNU means? Is it so hard to add 3-4 letters to "Linux" to respect this developers?
Author shouldn't base terminology on mass media. Nearly all journalists, article writers, I am sure, have never seen things about they are writing and they do not want to get deeper in understanding what a hell is everything this?
--
Happy hacking
stargrave
15 years 21 weeks 4 days 19 hours ago
Fast searching of definition
Several minutes spent on searching the definition of "Linux" give me the following:
http://foldoc.org/foldoc.cgi?Linux
An implementation of the Unix kernel originally written from scratch with no proprietary code.
http://multitran.ru/c/m.exe?l1=2&l2=1&s=linux
Ядро операционной системы, разработка которого была начата финским студентом Linus Torvalds в 1991 году.
It is on russian. In translation it will be: Operating systems's kernel, development of which was started by finnish student Linux Torvalds in 1991.
http://www.google.com/search?&q=define:Linux&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title
Linux (dt. []) ist ein „freier“ Betriebssystemkern (engl. Kernel).
Actually together with OS definition too.
--
Happy hacking
aboutblank
15 years 21 weeks 4 days 17 hours ago
If there is ever a reason to
If there is ever a reason to use the term GNU/Linux, it is to be precise and non-confusing. Life is confusing and blurry enough without people actively contributing to confusion by referring to terminology with multiple meanings.
We should reserve the term Linux for only the operating system kernel initiated by Linus Torvalds. We should use the term GNU/Linux to refer to the a collection of software that form the combined GNU and Linux system. If you want to name other software that runs together with the GNU/Linux system, then that is fine; but please remember that GNU and Linux are the two most fundamental systems in this particular case and so, both require equal mention. Please help keep things clear: Linux is an operating system kernel and GNU is a whole system of software that is intended to support itself. P.S. I really think that people need to get more precise definitions of the term "operating system".
Before someone pipes in about the term "free" being ambiguous, please note that in any current English dictionary, there is usually only one entry referring to "gratis" as opposed to the majority of the entries referring to liberty.
akf
15 years 21 weeks 4 days 16 hours ago
FAQ
Reasons to call it GNU/Linux in a FAQ:
http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html