2. Why Linux and not GNU/Linux? Linux is just a kernel. GNU/Linux is an OS.Fedora Linux is an OS. Although GNU project utilities are indeed essential, Fedora Linux consists of more than those plus Linux, and the contributions of many of those other projects is equally essential.
Stephen's right to point out that the Linux vs GNU/Linux
arguments have been mostly the same for 20 years. Very few of
those arguments are objective or logical, IMO. What if we did
have a way to define Linux, GNU/Linux and Fedora, though?
Something neither arbitrary nor capricious...
One of the bad arguments, seen in this thread too, is whether or not Linux is an OS or just a kernel. I think we can accept that Linux is an operating system on its own, though it's one that implements a non-standard, de facto interface.
The GNU operating system, on the other hand, is a mostly conformant implementation of POSIX and related standards. Its most common variant is GNU/Linux. Because it is an implementation of a formal standard, we can objectively identify the GNU/Linux operating system.
The LSB also provides a useful definition of an operating system which extends beyond POSIX and related standards. Fedora does produce an operating system that implements that standard, but that operating system isn't typically distributed on its own. Rather, it's a small part of the Fedora software distribution.
I think it makes sense to differentiate Fedora the operating system from Fedora the software distribution, because calling the entire distribution an operating system needlessly strains the definition of that term. And that means that Fedora is a project, Fedora is an operating system, and Fedora is a software distribution. If "Fedora Linux" has officially been the name of anything in the past, it's escaped my notice. When my laptop boots, it prominently displays a logo that says "Fedora".
If we're going to rename the operating system from "Fedora" to "Fedora Linux", and that name isn't used to differentiate a variant from one with a different kernel, then I think it's kind of conspicuous that we're using the name of the kernel and not the name of the POSIX operating system that Fedora extends. And my opinion is that choosing not to acknowledge GNU makes the project less welcoming and friendly to those of us for whom Free Software is an ethical concern before a technical one.
It's also rather conspicuous that when it comes to Apache httpd
and Eclipse IDE, we honor the name used by the people who wrote
the software, but when it comes to GNU/Linux, our standards for
naming are completely different.
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