Re: F35 Change: "Fedora Linux" in /etc/os-release

[Stephen John Smoogen <smooge@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 22 Mar 2021 at 02:09, Gordon Messmer <gordon.messmer@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 3/9/21 7:43 AM, Matthew Miller wrote:

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.

My main problem is that for a good portion of the 1990's the GNU operating system was HURD and any and all work on Linux was seen as a major distraction and removal of resources from the more important operating system. In the early 1990's, I don't remember the GNU hackers at the AI lab calling their systems GNU/Solaris or GNU/Ultrix or GNU/BSD when they had replaced various parts with GNU utilities. The only GNU OS was going to be HURD.

In many of those years, various projects wanted to be called the equivalent of 'GNU/Linux'  were told that wasn't something that the GNU project wanted to do. People were told that working on Linux was a distraction and should be a non-goal instead of working on HURD. Or that they needed to ship things in a way which met certain 'moral' points of 'pure Free software' which made the systems unbootable outside of a small set of shipped systems. 

Fast forward a bunch of years and HURD not getting done. Then it becomes a 'Every Linux OS is a GNU OS variant and should be called GNU/Linux' with a yearly push to relabel everything as GNU/Linux. And a yearly fight in the mailing lists where various people say no or yes.

--

Stephen J Smoogen.

_______________________________________________
devel mailing list -- devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To unsubscribe send an email to devel-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/
List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Do not reply to spam on the list, report it: https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure