RMS, Free software and the Ubuntu CDs

[Michael T. Richter]

On Sun, 2006-02-07 at 01:14 +0100, Daniel Carrera wrote:

> > (your average end-user not knowing nor caring what a "grep" or an
> > "awk" is) -- should be "recognised" in the name.  So his whole
> > rationalisation falls apart.



> This is unfair. The command-line utilities are not what make GNU
> crucial. GNU is an operating system without a kernel, not a bunch of
> utilities. 


Here we have to get into the pro forma argument about what an operating
system is.  To me the phrase "operating system without a kernel" is
meaningless since you can't have and operating system (in the sense of
"functional" for "operating") without a kernel.  You could easily make
the argument that GNU was (and is) just a collection of utilities plus
some support infrastructure waiting for a kernel to turn it into an
operating system.


> We're talking about the core libraries on which everything on
> your system is based (including the Linux kernel). 


I was under the impression that the Linux kernel doesn't actually use
the GNU libc/whatever.  Did I err?


> We're talking about
> all the daemons that are needed for the init process. Without GNU your
> system wouldn't even boot up. Compare this with X and Linux:
> 
> 1) If your computer didn't have X, it would still boot up. It might not
> do what you what, but then again, you could say the same about Firefox
> and OpenOffice.org. But true enough, X is a crucial part for the
> desktop.


My point is that from the perspective of the end-user, it is X more than
anything that makes Linux attractive.  They don't know what a grep or an
awk or a gcc or a glibc or any of that stuff is.  They know this:
"There's this thing called 'X' that lets me use my programs.  Without it
it's too scary."

Further, my real point is that there are a lot of components which are
absolutely necessary (yes, including GNU!) to make an operating system
that end-users will actually look at and use.  So if RMS was actually
interested in giving credit where it was due, as he claims, he wouldn't
stop with "GNU+Linux" and instead would call it "Xorg/XFree+Mozilla
+OpenOffice+GNU+Linux+Joe'sRealGoodFreeSoftwareHutAndRifleRange+" ad
nauseum.  But he doesn't.  He doesn't even hit all of the Big Three (X,
GNU and Linux).  He only picks out two of the Big Three -- one of which
just happens to be his and the other of which he constantly snipes at
with disparaging comments.

I smell the reek of jealousy.


> 2) Linux is actually the least critical part. There are other free
> kernels that can be used instead and the average user wouldn't notice
> the difference (e.g. BSD, Hurd).


They'd sure notice the difference if the Hurd was in place.  Vapourware
doesn't exactly make my computer sing....


> I would rank them in this order:
> 1) GNU
> 2) X11
> 3) Linux.


Where I would rank them, from the perspective of an end-user (who only
cares about his system being usable) X, GNU and then Linux.


> I'm not saying that this justifies RMS asking people to call it
> GNU/Linux. I'm just trying to be fair about GNU's role.


Oh, don't get me wrong.  I think that GNU is very important.  This
doesn't change my impression that RMS is being a childish git when he
insists of having everybody call it GNU+Linux without bothering to
acknowledge any of the other vital contributions to a usable system.  If
he wants to be consistent, he needs to acknowledge X at the very least,
or he can just rest satisfied in the knowledge that his brainchild, GNU,
is responsible for the most popular free operating system in the world
without whinging about not getting the credit for it.

--
Michael T. Richter
Email: ttmrichter at gmail.com, mtr1966 at hotpop.com
MSN: ttmrichter at hotmail.com, mtr1966 at hotmail.com; YIM:
michael_richter_1966; AIM: YanJiahua1966; ICQ: 241960658; Jabber:
mtr1966 at jabber.cn

"Thanks to the Court's decision, only clean Indians or colored people
other than Kaffirs, can now travel in the trams." --Mahatma Gandhi
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/attachments/20060702/502ccb55/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 191 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
URL: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/attachments/20060702/502ccb55/attachment.sig>