From: Rick DeNatale <rick.denatale@...>
Date: 2010-02-06T00:03:44+09:00
Subject: Re: ruby is not rails

On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 1:41 AM, Ruby Newbee <rubynewbee@gmail.com> wrote:
> GNU was more popular due to the combination with Linux.
> But Richard Stallman said "GNU is not Unix".
>

So what?

Linux isn't Unix either, Unix being a particular implementation (or
maybe a family of implementations) based on and derived from the
original AT&T code base.

Strictly speaking Linux is just the kernel, GNU never did implement a
kernel or device drivers as far as I know, it provides things like
shells, compilers, and utilities.  You need that higher level software
to make an OS (particularly a POSIX compliant OS), most Linux
distributions make liberal use of GNU implementations of the higher
level stuff, and the word Linux is loosely used to describe those
various combinations, but that doesn't mean that Linux really means
that.

If GNU had a kernel, Linus Torvalds has said that he probably never
would have started the Linux project.

So I'd say that GNU isn't Linux either, nor is Linux GNU.

Although Stallman always tried to stress the contributions of GNU to
most Linux distributions by campaigning for calling it GNU Linux,
which might lead some to thing that Linux was GNU, or at least a part
of GNU, neither of which it seems to me is true.

-- 
Rick DeNatale

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