GNU/Linux VS Linux

Default featured post

Actually, the aim of this post is, to clear an old confusion about using Linux or GNU/Linux term. In all of my posts I use(d) Linux term instead of GNU/Linux but the point is that I do not mind to use GNU/Linux as well, means that I totally agree with the following statement of Richard Stallman (RMS).

Since a long name such as GNU/X11/Apache/Linux/TeX/Perl/Python/FreeCiv becomes absurd, at some point you will have to set a threshold and omit the names of the many other secondary contributions. There is no one obvious right place to set the threshold, so wherever you set it, we won’t argue against it … But one name that cannot result from concerns of fairness and giving credit, not for any possible threshold level, is “Linux”. It can’t be fair to give all the credit to one secondary contribution (Linux) while omitting the principal contribution (GNU).

So from above statement which I copied directly from this source, it is clear that the true name according to Richard Stallman is GNU/Linux but why many people like me who already know the correct name still using Linux instead of GNU/Linux.

For me the answer is clear. Until two years ago even I did not know who was Richard Stallman(RMS) and what was the GNU project.

All I knew and heard was just Linux and Linus Torvalds name.

So just imagine since my first time that I touched Linux (2004) I just knew GNU/Linux as Linux and now Linux term is written in my mind so simply and basically I use Linux jargon instead of GNU/Linux for ease of use.

Again, I want to put stress and say the correct term is GNU/Linux NOT Linux.

Finally, I want to say that I respect both Richard Stallman (RMS) and Linus Torvalds for such a great operating system and it is obviously clear that both Linus’ kernel and GNU project are complementary of each other and without one we did not have the powerful and flexible OS now.