Stallman Thread

This thread is all about RichardMS RMarxS ``let me interject'' RMStalin, fearless leader of the GMU movement to end software patents so that we'll be free, hackers, we'll be freeeeeeeeeeeeee

GNU never would have gotten anywhere without the help of Linus.

Racin' Richard R. Richman.

>>2
I'd just like to interject for a moment. The person you're referring as Linus has done, in fact, just a kernel for the GNU operating system, or as I've recently taken to say, nothing. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.

Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called "Linux", and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.

Linux is just the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called "Linux" distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.

Therefore Linus has done near to nothing for the GNU Project.

>>4
Back to /g/, please.

>>5
Fuck off, ``faggot''.

>>2
People would have matched a BSD kernel with GNU if not for Linux.

The GNU toolchain is trivial to implement. The Anonix project, despite its faggotry, proved that. There currently exist free C/C++ compilers which are competitive with gcc for speed, and yet were written in a fraction of the time that gcc has been under development.

An OS kernel, however, is considerably more difficult to implement. If the GNU adherents think they would've been anywhere near as successful without Linus's effort, they are kidding themselves. The utter failure of the HURD proves this. Stallman's naming crusade is — as usual — retarded.

HURDURR

>>8
How can you compare AN^ON_IX to ^GNU_Freedom?

>>8
Toolchain? You mena coreutils?

>>8
RMS made poor design decisions that hindered the Hurd architects early in development. After that, Linux had matured significantly and so, the FSF decided that Hurd was no longer a priority project meaning that development effort moved to the priority projects. Eventually, the Hurd just became a research project for the Hurd hackers such as myself.

Also, the naming argument is over the definition of OS. If the kernel in itself is an OS, then Linux is an OS. Otherwise, Linux is one (critically important) component of a larger OS. Keep in mind that Stallman's era was still early in the age of computers and so, Stallman would have some authority over nomanclature.