[NTLUG:Discuss] On Linux and other *nixes...[News Link]

[Steve Baker]

"./aal" wrote:
> 
> http://linux.com/news/articles.phtml?sid=93&aid=10816

That is easily the most *annoying* thing I've read all week!

Man - that guy is *such* a jerk.  He's saying that Linux
isn't the kernel - because until it's running it's just a
file on disk?   So GIMP isn't GIMP, KDE isn't KDE, GNU GCC
isn't even GNU GCC?  He's telling us that these things can't
have names until they are running?  Ridiculous!  What am I
supposed to say?  "I'm now compiling a file which is soon
to become the Linux kernel", "Could you download me that
file which when placed at memory address 0x802320 and executed
by an Intel Pentium will become GIMP" ?!?!

Linux is the Kernel.  It's still the kernel both before and
after being compiled.  You could output it to punched cards,
frame them individually, hang them on your living room wall and it
would *STILL* be Linux.  (You'd need a *BIG* wall though)

Then we get to the point - which is that Stallman and all his
cronies are pissed because their Kernel has sunk without trace
because Linux got there first and *WORKS*.

Well, I don't mind giving them credit for all those wonderful
tools - without which certainly there would be no Linux - but
those tools are also regularly run under Windoze (CygWin, Ming,
Emacs, etc) - but we don't call it GNU/Windoze do we?  What about
GNU/BeOS - they are just as dependent on GNU as Linux.  The reason
why is that he's not upset at them because they aren't getting all
the limelight.

Every Operating system throughout the entire history of computing
has been named after it's kernel.  UNIX with csh and vi is still
UNIX - it only becomes 'BSD UNIX' when you run the Berkeley varient
of the AT&T kernel.

The fact is that Linux needs marketting - and a single, snappy name
that everyone can pronounce with a single cute penguin Logo is all
we *need*.

I prostrate myself at the feet of the guys who wrote all those nifty
GNU Tools - I'll gladly give them all the credit in the world for
writing them and admit that without them we'd still be running DOS...but
the Operating System that I use is Linux - and *not* GNU/BSD/Sun/SGI-Linux.
After all, we'd have to give credit to BSD, Sun and SGI who also provided
code without which there would be no Linux.

If anyone should be upset it should be the guy who invented/wrote Minix.
Without Minix, there could be no Linux - but Minix has been eradicated
because of it - nobody offers to prostrate themselves at the feet of
the Minux author...erm...whatever-his-name-is.

Aaaarrrggghhhh!

-- 
Steve Baker   HomeEmail: <sjbaker1 at airmail.net>
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