From 22c3bfee9148e1836817ef00b4829a8385570c69 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Christian Grothoff Date: Sat, 24 Sep 2022 17:04:26 +0200 Subject: update RMS articles --- .../blog/articles/en/linux-and-gnu.html | 101 +++++++++++---------- 1 file changed, 51 insertions(+), 50 deletions(-) (limited to 'talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/linux-and-gnu.html') diff --git a/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/linux-and-gnu.html b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/linux-and-gnu.html index ec2e46a..bcc7de9 100644 --- a/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/linux-and-gnu.html +++ b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/linux-and-gnu.html @@ -1,36 +1,44 @@ - + + + + Linux and GNU - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation + -

Linux and the GNU System

+ + + +
+

Linux and the GNU System

-
by by Richard Stallman
-
-
-
-

For more information see also -the GNU/Linux FAQ, -and Why GNU/Linux?

-
-
- -

Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called -“Linux”, and many of its users +“Linux,” and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.

+ +

There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in @@ -46,7 +54,7 @@ GNU/Linux.

Many users do not understand the difference between the kernel, which is Linux, and the whole system, which they also call -“Linux”. The ambiguous use of the name doesn't help +“Linux.” The ambiguous use of the name doesn't help people understand. These users often think that Linus Torvalds developed the whole operating system in 1991, with a bit of help.

@@ -83,7 +91,7 @@ kind of project by specific programs that came from the project.

If we tried to measure the GNU Project's contribution in this way, what would we conclude? One CD-ROM vendor found that in their “Linux -distribution”, GNU +distribution,” GNU software was the largest single contingent, around 28% of the total source code, and this included some of the essential major components without which there could be no system. Linux itself was @@ -91,7 +99,7 @@ about 3%. (The proportions in 2008 are similar: in the “main” repository of gNewSense, Linux is 1.5% and GNU packages are 15%.) 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”.

+choice would be “GNU.”

But that is not the deepest way to consider the question. The GNU @@ -109,11 +117,11 @@ 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 found, wrote, or found people to write everything on the list. We wrote essential -but unexciting -(1) components because you can't have a system +but unexciting [1] components +because you can't have a system without them. Some of our system components, the programming tools, became popular on their own among programmers, but we wrote many -components that are not tools (2). We even +components that are not tools [2]. We even developed a chess game, GNU Chess, because a complete system needs games too.

@@ -130,14 +138,14 @@ from being ready for people to use in general.

Fortunately, we didn't have to wait for the Hurd, because of Linux. Once Torvalds freed Linux in 1992, it fit into the last major gap in the GNU system. People could -then -combine Linux with the GNU system to make a complete free system -— a version of the GNU system which also contained Linux. The +then +combine Linux with the GNU system to make a complete free system—a +version of the GNU system which also contained Linux. The GNU/Linux system, in other words.

Making them work well together was not a trivial job. Some GNU -components(3) needed substantial change +components [3] needed substantial change to work with Linux. Integrating a complete system as a distribution that would work “out of the box” was a big job, too. It required addressing the issue of how to install and boot the @@ -148,7 +156,7 @@ the nature of things, was surely going to be done by someone.

The GNU Project supports GNU/Linux systems as well as the GNU -system. The FSF funded the rewriting of +system. The FSF funded the rewriting of the Linux-related extensions to the GNU C library, so that now they are well integrated, and the newest GNU/Linux systems use the current library release with no changes. The FSF also funded an early stage @@ -169,9 +177,9 @@ The FSF supports computer facilities for a few of them.

eliminating various nonfree programs. Nowadays, the usual version of Linux contains nonfree programs too. These programs are intended to be loaded into I/O devices when the system starts, and they are -included, as long series of numbers, in the "source code" of Linux. +included, as long series of numbers, in the “source code” of Linux. Thus, maintaining free GNU/Linux distributions now entails maintaining -a free version of +a free version of Linux too.

Whether you use GNU/Linux or not, please don't confuse the public @@ -179,14 +187,14 @@ by using the name “Linux” ambiguously. Linux is the kernel, one of the essential major components of the system. The system as a whole is basically the GNU system, with Linux added. When you're talking about this combination, please call it -“GNU/Linux”.

+“GNU/Linux.”

If you want to make a link on “GNU/Linux” for further -reference, this page and -http://www.gnu.org/gnu/the-gnu-project.html are good choices. If +reference, this page and +https://www.gnu.org/gnu/thegnuproject.html are good choices. If you mention Linux, the kernel, and want to add a link for further -reference, http://foldoc.org/linux +reference, https://foldoc.org/linux is a good URL to use.

@@ -197,7 +205,7 @@ Aside from GNU, one other project has independently produced a free Unix-like operating system. This system is known as BSD, and it was developed at UC Berkeley. It was nonfree in the 80s, but became free in the early 90s. A free operating system that exists -today(4) is almost certainly either a +today [4] is almost certainly either a variant of the GNU system, or a kind of BSD system.

@@ -209,39 +217,34 @@ with GNU. BSD systems today use some GNU programs, just as the GNU system and its variants use some BSD programs; however, taken as wholes, they are two different systems that evolved separately. The BSD developers did not write a kernel and add it to the GNU system, -and a name like GNU/BSD would not fit the situation.(5)

+and a name like GNU/BSD would not fit the situation [5].

-

Notes

+

Footnotes

    -
  1. -These unexciting but essential components +
  2. These unexciting but essential components include the GNU assembler (GAS) and the linker (GLD), both are now part of the GNU Binutils package, GNU tar, and many more.
    3. -
  3. -For instance, The Bourne Again SHell (BASH), +
  4. For instance, The Bourne Again SHell (BASH), the PostScript interpreter Ghostscript, and the GNU C library are not programming tools. Neither are GNUCash, GNOME, and GNU Chess.
    5. -
  5. -For instance, the +
  6. For instance, the GNU C library.
    7. -
  7. -Since that was written, a nearly-all-free +
  8. Since that was written, a nearly-all-free Windows-like system has been developed, but technically it is not at all like GNU or Unix, so it doesn't really affect this issue. Most of the kernel of Solaris has been made free, but if you wanted to make a free system out of that, aside from replacing the missing parts of the kernel, you would also need to put it into GNU or BSD.
    9. -
  9. -On the other hand, in the years since this article +
  10. On the other hand, in the years since this article was written, the GNU C Library has been ported to several versions of the BSD kernel, which made it straightforward to combine the GNU system with that kernel. Just as with GNU/Linux, these are indeed variants of @@ -249,10 +252,8 @@ GNU, and are therefore called, for instance, GNU/kFreeBSD and GNU/kNetBSD depending on the kernel of the system. Ordinary users on typical desktops can hardly distinguish between GNU/Linux and GNU/*BSD.
    11. -
-
@@ -301,7 +302,7 @@ of this article.

There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. --> -

Copyright © 1997-2002, 2007, 2014-2017, 2019, 2021 Richard M. Stallman

+

Copyright © 1997-2002, 2005, 2008, 2019, 2021 Richard Stallman

This page is licensed under a Creative @@ -311,10 +312,10 @@ Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Updated: -$Date: 2021/04/07 17:55:37 $ +$Date: 2021/11/02 13:20:53 $

- + -- cgit v1.2.3