Richard Stallman has taken to calling Linux distros GNU OSes

[Jason]

Has anybody else noticed this? That Richard Stallman likes to drop the "Linux" out of GNU/Linux and just call it the GNU operating system. I just thought it was amusing.

What is GNU?

GNU is an operating system that is free softwareâ€"that is, it respects users' freedom. The development of GNU made it possible to use a computer without software that would trample your freedom.

We recommend installable versions of GNU (more precisely, GNU/Linux distributions) which are entirely free software. More about GNU below.

He still mentions that they're more precisely called GNU/Linux distributions as you see above. But the logo above only shows "The GNU operating system". He also only lists distributions containing ONLY Free Software (remember Free here doesn't mean "at no cost"). Even Debian has been dropped because they have non-free repositories even though they're not even installed by default. I think it's more that Debian calls their project Debian Linux and no longer Debian GNU/Linux. What a guy! But you gotta' love his and FSF's contributions to Linux.

http://gnu.org

[bobf]

Sadly, how appropriate, for the Rodney Dangerfield of FOSS. He writes *everything else*, and Linus does the kernel, and today, everybody calls the amalgamation...

Linux.

(NB: He's *not* wrong...)

[fox]

Actually, if you go to the Debian website, they just refer to their distro as "Debian". In their introduction link, they note that "Debian systems currently use the Linux kernel or the FreeBSD kernel" and "A large part of the basic tools that fill out the operating system come from the GNU project; hence the names: GNU/Linux, GNU/kFreeBSD, and GNU/Hurd.". On their FAQ page, they have the topic "What is Debian GNU/Linux?" While I know that Stallman doesn't approve of Debian because of their non-free repositories, I really don't see how Debian short-shrifts GNU.

[Jason]

That's a good point (that they also don't mention Linux in the name). But they used to list the distro as Debian GNU/Linux if I recall correctly. I can see why they dropped it since they also have a distro using the FreeBSD kernel. I wasn't aware of this.

[Jason]

I don't think Stallman personally wrote everything else, that is, the GNU libraries. In any case, I don't know of anybody who uses Linux who doesn't know of the GNU connection, too. But as Mike pointed out with Debian, most Linux distros don't even mention the word Linux in their names anymore.

[fox]

.... I can see why they dropped it since they also have a distro using the FreeBSD kernel. I wasn't aware of this.

And the Hurd kernel (though I don't think they have a released version of it yet).