Re: [PLUG] Richard M. Stallman resigns

[Steve Litt via plug <plug@lists.phillylinux.org>]

On Fri, 20 Sep 2019 22:54:36 -0400
prushik--- via plug <plug@lists.phillylinux.org> wrote:

> On September 20, 2019 7:11:57 PM EDT, Steve Litt via plug
> <plug@lists.phillylinux.org> wrote:
> >I see nothing ridiculous about it. It's accurate. If you want to use
> >the word "Linux" for short, fine, but Linux is the kernel, and the
> >other stuff is supplied by many others, with a good chunk of it being
> >supplied by the GNU project.  
> 
> 
> Except that before rms, kernel and operating system meant the same
> thing. We only make the distinction now because rms said they were
> different.

Where'd you get that information? I can't disprove it, but I doubt its
veracity. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSDOS.SYS and note that
MSDOS.SYS was DOS' kernel, first appearing in MSDOS 1.1. Look at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_DOS_operating_systems to see
that MSDOS 1.1 came out in May 1982. At
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU you can see that the GNU project was
first publicly announced in September 1983, more than a year after DOS
1.1. I can't find references, but I remember hearing about the "VAX
kernel" in the 1980's. The word "kernel" wouldn't exist if it were a 1
to 1 venn diagram match with "OS".

Looking at it another way, how many folks would call a kernel, with
nothing else, as an OS? 

Oh, and when I use BSD, I sure am glad they include ls, cat, grep, sed,
AWK and the like.

> 
> Also, not the gnu components are not that significant anyways, and
> the don't really make up the operating environment like the kernel
> does.

Speak for yourself. Not a day goes by when I don't use cat, ls, AWK,
and less multiple times.  I write whole programs with them. I use bash
every day, and every shellscript I write starts with #!/bin/sh.


> 
> And finally, I really like musl and busybox. And llvm and clang are
> doing pretty good nowadays, the gnu parts have really become
> optional.

GNU can and has been written in musl and various library collections.
Get Void Linux, musl style, and you'll have all those utilities created
with musl.

I don't find it all that painful to acknowledge the value of the GNU
scaffolding in conjunction with the Linux kernel, nor to occasionally
call it "GNU/Linux".

SteveT

Steve Litt
Author: The Key to Everyday Excellence
http://www.troubleshooters.com/key
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/stevelitt

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