RMS, Free software and the Ubuntu CDs

[Michael T. Richter]

On Sat, 2006-01-07 at 16:53 +0200, Alexander Skwar wrote:

> > The problem with RMS and his cohorts is that he comes across as very, 
> > very snide and jealous when other people are successful where he isn't.  
> > He's been snarky and snide toward Linus Torvalds (and Linux as a whole) 
> > because people call this Linux instead of GNU+Linux or GNU/Linux.  



> But actually, he *IS* right in doing this. Linux isn't so great
> only because of the kernel (ie. Linux), but for a great part
> because of the userland, ie. GNU.


And X?  What about X?  I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that
GNU doesn't mean a damn in terms of Linux's sudden surge on the desktop
without X.  And, in fact, it is X specifically which makes a Linux
distro usable to normal end-users.  So it should, in fact, be called
Xorg/XFree+GNU+Linux.

And that game can be continued until we have an absurdly long string,
can't it?

Further, just on the side of salesmanship: a short, easily-pronounced
name -- "Linux" in this case -- is far superior to a clumsy expression
like "Guh-new plus Linux" or "Guh-new slash Linux".

No, I'm standing by my position that he's being pissy about GNU/Linux or
GNU+Linux not because it actually makes sense in any meaningful way, but
instead because he's upset that Linus Torvalds was successful and he
wasn't.

--
Michael T. Richter
Email: ttmrichter at gmail.com, mtr1966 at hotpop.com
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mtr1966 at jabber.cn

"Sexual organs were created for reproduction between the male element
and the female element -- and everything that deviates from that is not
acceptable from a Buddhist point of view. Between a man and man, a woman
and another woman, in the mouth, the anus, or even using a hand." --The
Dalai Lama
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