GNU/Linux naming controversy

People like you are child sponsors

GNU/Linux is the term promoted by the GNU project, its founder Richard Stallman, and its supporters to refer to variants of the GNU operating system that use the Linux kernel. For historical and other reasons, most people today use the term "Linux" for the whole system, one notable exception being Debian GNU/Linux.

The main argument for GNU/Linux is that GNU was a project to create a complete free operating system predating Linus Torvalds' work by several years, and that the Linux kernel was only the final small piece of an otherwise complete system that they had painstakingly written and/or assembled. Moreover, calling the entire system "Linux" leaves out the GNU free-software philosophy that, they argue, made the system possible.

This naming controversy is also a reflection of a wider confusion between Linux, the kernel, and the operating system as a whole (of which the kernel is typically only a small part).

Table of contents

1 History
2 Arguments for
3 Arguments against
4 Cases where "GNU/Linux" is inapplicable
5 External links

History

The history of Linux is closely tied to that of the GNU project, a prominent free software project aiming to develop a complete Unix-like operating system composed entirely of free software. By 1991, when the first version of the Linux kernel was written, the GNU operating system was almost complete. However, their kernel, the HURD, was still in its earliest stages of development. Torvalds and other early Linux developers adapted the kernel to work with the GNU system. Linux thus filled the last major gap in the GNU plan.

The HURD followed an ambitious design which proved unexpectedly difficult to implement. It is currently marginally usable, but hardware support is limited, and, while its microkernel design has theoretical advantages over the monolithic kernel approach used in Linux, most contributors to the GNU project use Linux-based GNU systems.

In 1992, the Yggdrasil distribution was called "Linux/GNU/X". The name "GNU/Linux" was first used by Debian in 1994. In GNU's 1994-June Bulletin, Linux is referred to as a "free UNIX clone (with many GNU utilities and libraries)". In the 1995-January edition, the term "GNU/Linux" was used instead. In May of 1996, Stallman released Emacs 19.31 with the system target "Linux" changed to "Lignux", also suggesting the alternatives of "Linux-based GNU system" or "GNU/Linux system". Stallman later used "GNU/Linux" exclusively.

Arguments for

Some consider the term "operating system" to refer to only the kernel, with the rest being simply "utilities" (regardless of the practical necessity or volume of such utilities) or "applications". In this sense, the operating system is called "Linux", and a Linux distribution is based on Linux with the addition of the GNU tools and other software. On the other hand, both the name "GNU" and the name "Linux" are intentionally related to the name "Unix", and Unix has always conceptually included the C library and userland tools as well as the kernel. In the 1991 license statement for version 0.11 of Linux (which was not under the GPL until version 0.12), Torvalds wrote:

Sadly, a kernel by itself gets you nowhere. To get a working system you need a shell, compilers, a library etc. These are separate parts and may be under a stricter (or even looser) copyright. Most of the tools used with linux are GNU software and are under the GNU copyleft. These tools aren't in the distribution — ask me (or GNU) for more info.''

A common misconception is that the FSF argues for "GNU/Linux" purely on the basis of the large number of GNU tools used in Linux. Stallman writes (in Linux and the GNU Project):

So if you were going to pick a name for the system based on who wrote the programs in the system, the most appropriate single choice would be GNU. But we don't think that is the right way to consider the question. The GNU Project was not, is not, a project to develop specific software packages. [...] Many people have made major contributions to the free software in the system, and they all deserve credit. But the reason it is an integrated system — and not just a collection of useful programs — is because the GNU Project set out to make it one. We made a list of the programs needed to make a complete free system, and we systematically wrote, or found people to write, everything on the list.

One practical problem with the use of the word "Linux" to refer to the kernel, the OS and entire distributions is that it has often led to confusion about the distinctions among the three. Thus, media sources frequently make erroneous statements such as claiming that the entire Linux operating system (in the popular sense) was written from scratch by Torvalds in 1991, that Torvalds directs the development of other components such as graphical interfaces, the file systems or the GNU tools, or that new releases of the kernel involve a similar degree of user-visible change as do new versions of proprietary operating systems such as Windows (where many things besides the kernel change simultaneously).

Arguments against

"Linux" is easier to say. It is the most widespread name, so many people simply adopt this usage. It is also the name Torvalds has used for the combined system since 1991.

Stallman only began asking people to call the system "GNU/Linux" in the mid 1990s after the name "Linux" was already popular. Some feel his advocacy of the combined name is thus an attempt to ride on the fame of Linux.

Cases where "GNU/Linux" is inapplicable

In rare cases, the Linux kernel is used with few or no components of GNU (running directly on a nearly "bare" kernel). These are mainly small embedded systems, such as dedicated firewall products or other appliances. Everyone, including the FSF, agrees that "GNU/Linux" is not an appropriate name in such cases. All desktop machines, and the vast majority of servers, do use GNU software, especially glibc, the GNU C Library.

External links

Linux and the GNU Project by Richard Stallman
GNU/Linux FAQ by FSF
Proposal: Linrmsux by Anatoly Vorobey (from alt.humor.best-of-usenet)