gnu-users-never-heard-of-gnu.html (6068B)
1 <!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" --> 2 <!-- Parent-Version: 1.96 --> 3 <!-- This page is derived from /server/standards/boilerplate.html --> 4 <!--#set var="TAGS" value="gnulinux" --> 5 <!--#set var="DISABLE_TOP_ADDENDUM" value="yes" --> 6 <title>GNU Users Who Have Never Heard of GNU 7 - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> 8 <!--#include virtual="/gnu/po/gnu-users-never-heard-of-gnu.translist" --> 9 <!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" --> 10 <!--#include virtual="/gnu/gnu-breadcrumb.html" --> 11 <!--GNUN: OUT-OF-DATE NOTICE--> 12 <!--#include virtual="/server/top-addendum.html" --> 13 <div class="article reduced-width"> 14 <h2>GNU Users Who Have Never Heard of GNU</h2> 15 16 <address class="byline">by <a 17 href="https://www.stallman.org/">Richard Stallman</a></address> 18 19 <p>Most people have never heard of GNU. Even most of the people who 20 use the GNU system have never heard of GNU, since so many people and 21 companies teach them to call it “Linux.” Indeed, GNU 22 users often say they are “running Linux,” which is like 23 saying you are “driving your carburetor” or 24 “driving your transmission.”</p> 25 26 <p>Nonetheless, those who know about GNU associate it with the ideals 27 of freedom of the free software movement. That association is no 28 accident; the motive for developing GNU was specifically to make it 29 possible to use a computer and have freedom.</p> 30 31 <p>A person seeing the name “GNU” for the first time in 32 “GNU/Linux” won't immediately know what it represents, but has 33 come one step closer to finding out. The association between the name 34 GNU and our goals of freedom and social solidarity exists in the minds 35 of hundreds of thousands of GNU/Linux users that do know about GNU. 36 It exists in <a href="/home.html">gnu.org</a> and in 37 Wikipedia. It exists around the web; if these users search for GNU, 38 they will find the ideas GNU stands for.</p> 39 40 <p>If they don't search, they may encounter them anyway. The 41 <a href="/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html">“open 42 source”</a> rhetoric tends to lead people's attention away from 43 issues of users' freedom, but not totally; there is still discussion 44 of GNU and free software, and people have some chance of coming across 45 it. When that happens, they are more likely to pay attention to 46 information about GNU (such as that it's the work of a campaign for 47 freedom and community) if they know they are users of the GNU 48 system.</p> 49 50 <p>Over time, calling the system “GNU/Linux” spreads 51 awareness of the ideals of freedom for which we developed the GNU 52 system. It is also useful as a reminder for people in our community 53 who know about these ideals, in a world where much of discussion of 54 free software takes a totally practical (and thus amoral) approach. 55 When we ask you to call the system “GNU/Linux,” we are 56 asking you to help in making the public aware of the free software 57 ideals.</p> 58 59 <div class="announcement comment" role="complementary"> 60 <hr class="no-display" /> 61 <p>To learn more about this issue, you can also read 62 our <a href="/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html">GNU/Linux FAQ</a>, our page on 63 <a href="/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html">Why GNU/Linux?</a> 64 and our page on <a href="/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html">Linux and the GNU System</a>. 65 </p> 66 </div> 67 </div> 68 69 </div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above --> 70 <!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" --> 71 <div id="footer" role="contentinfo"> 72 <div class="unprintable"> 73 74 <p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to 75 <a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. 76 There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> 77 the FSF. Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent 78 to <a href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p> 79 80 <p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph, 81 replace it with the translation of these two: 82 83 We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality 84 translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection. 85 Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard 86 to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org"> 87 <web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p> 88 89 <p>For information on coordinating and contributing translations of 90 our web pages, see <a 91 href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations 92 README</a>. --> 93 Please see the <a 94 href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations 95 README</a> for information on coordinating and contributing translations 96 of this article.</p> 97 </div> 98 99 <!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to 100 files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should 101 be under CC BY-ND 4.0. Please do NOT change or remove this 102 without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first. 103 Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the 104 document. For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the 105 document was modified, or published. 106 107 If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too. 108 Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying 109 years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable 110 year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including 111 being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system). 112 113 There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers 114 Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. --> 115 116 <p>Copyright © 2006, 2015, 2021 Free Software 117 Foundation, Inc.</p> 118 119 <p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license" 120 href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative 121 Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p> 122 123 <!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" --> 124 125 <p class="unprintable">Updated: 126 <!-- timestamp start --> 127 $Date: 2021/11/02 12:31:19 $ 128 <!-- timestamp end --> 129 </p> 130 </div> 131 </div><!-- for class="inner", starts in the banner include --> 132 </body> 133 </html>