GNU/Linux or Linux

[LinuxFox]

I don't know if this is the correct forum for this question. If it isn't, can a moderator please move it?

I was wondering, what do other Ubuntu (or Linux) users like calling it. I was looking at an article about how Linux should be called GNU/Linux awhile back, giving credit to the GNU project. So I want to know what other here people call it.

I'm not looking for a fight, argument, or computer politics. I just want to talk about this and see what others say.

[swoll1980]

Linux. GNU/Linux sounds stupid to me personally, plus I enjoy listening to Stallman wine about it.

[LinuxFox]

Linux. GNU/Linux sounds stupid, plus I enjoy listening to Stallman wine about it.I'm more for saying Linux too. It just sounds more natural to say it like that.

No offense to people who prefer to say GNU/Linux, as that's their choice.

[kellemes]

I say Linux and write GNU/Linux.

[wojox]

GNU's Not Unix / Linux

[Viva]

I call it Linux, but only because I'm used to it. In fairness, it should be called GNU/Linux.

[jelle_]

i think it should be called gnu/linux, but i am to lazy to do so...

[Mehall]

I call it Linux, but only because I'm used to it. In fairness, it should be called GNU/Linux.

It should be called GNU/Xorg/Linux/Apache/OpenOffice/yougetthepoint

Linux is the kernel, and the kernel is ONLY Linux. Any distributions can call themselves what they choose, as it is THEIR choice. Ubuntu is Ubuntu Linux, Debian is Debian Linux or Debian kFreeBSD etc and most others follow this and call themselves Linux, rather than GNU/Linux.

[DeadSuperHero]

I use the terms interchangeably, although I try to say GNU/Linux more. I'm a GNU-head, I know. When writing an article, I try and address it as GNU/Linux, unless I'm specifically talking about the kernel itself.

[kellemes]

It should be called GNU/Xorg/Linux/Apache/OpenOffice/yougetthepoint

Linux is the kernel, and the kernel is ONLY Linux.

When I say Linux I mean the os (including a hole lot more then the kernel). When I want to talk about the kernel I call it kernel.

[Tibuda]

GNU/Linux is strange for me. Sometimes I say Ubuntu, and sometimes Linux.

[swoll1980]

If you want to get technical, I call the OS by it's distro name, Ubuntu, Mandriva, Fedora. If I'm referring to the kernel I call it Linux, for the reasons I stated early.

[LowSky]

Its Linux... Stallman and his GNU can go grow beards together for all I care. I remember reading something the Gnu actually makes up more of actuall software than Linux but honestly Gnu would be no where without Linux, that is my point of view. Stallman seems really annoying about this. they guy is all for opensource and development but for whatever reason want total credit were is not really due. Sure Torvalds use GNU to get his Unix like Kernel running, but that is like saying any DE that uses X11 as its based should have X11 infront of its name, like X11/Gnome...

rms should stick to preaching copyleft and GPL

[swoll1980]

like X11/Gnome...



GNU/Linux/X11/Gnome/Ubuntu

[koenn]

It should be called GNU/Xorg/Linux/Apache/OpenOffice/yougetthepoint

Linux is the kernel, and the kernel is ONLY Linux. Any distributions can call themselves what they choose, as it is THEIR choice. Ubuntu is Ubuntu Linux, Debian is Debian Linux or Debian kFreeBSD etc and most others follow this and call themselves Linux, rather than GNU/Linux.

Debian consistently calls itself GNU/Linux.

Debian is a free operating system (OS) for your computer. An operating system is the set of basic programs and utilities that make your computer run. Debian uses the Linux kernel (the core of an operating system), but most of the basic OS tools come from the GNU project; hence the name GNU/Linux.

[LinuxFox]

GNU/Linux is strange for me. Sometimes I say Ubuntu, and sometimes Linux.I also call it Ubuntu at times, when I'm talking about the distro I'm using. Though I sometimes use the names of other distros if I talk about them, like Knoppix. Sometimes I'll add "Linux" after the distro name.

[TBOL3]

Actually, it's not Ubuntu Linux, the name is just ubuntu, with the tagline linux for human beings.

With that being said, I call it linux, because ubuntu just doesn't roll off of my tongue.

[stwschool]

I call it Ubuntu or Linux most of the time, but I do see that Stallman has a point about Gnu/Linux, Linus has something of an ego I feel. I would also argue that it is important to recognise that the culture around linux, its FOSS roots, etc, come from the movement started by Stallman and that should be recognised. That said, it's clunky to say in speech, and to write. Perhaps just as terminology changed from Free Software to Open Source, we need to find a new term to adequately describe the symbiosis of GNU and Linux?

[MaxIBoy]

I'd say that for most (not all) distros, the correct term would be "GNU/Linux."

However, I never ask people to use my full name in conversation. My first name will do in all but the most formal or precise of conversations.

Similarly, I just call it Linux unless I'm talking to someone who doesn't understand the distinction.

[Sublime Porte]

Although I mostly use the term Linux, the more correct term is definitely GNU/Linux, and in fact probably should just be called GNU, as GNU was the project that began the operating system, not Linux. Linux was just the last major piece of software slotted into place.

Just out of interest does anyone refer to Mac OSX as Mach? Or Windows as ntoskrnl.exe?

I think the name GNU/OS woulda been better. Which kernel you slot into it isn't really that crucial. MacOS for instance has changed kernel, in fact it changed the entire OS. BSD changed kernel, yet nobody ceased calling it Unix, did they?

It's strange that only one OS is known purely by the name of it's kernel, I guess it's probably due to the fact that it's a hybrid system of sorts, with components coming from many different places. Rather than from one unified organisation/company who can maintain their own consistent name.

[Sublime Porte]

Its Linux... Stallman and his GNU can go grow beards together for all I care. I remember reading something the Gnu actually makes up more of actuall software than Linux but honestly

Actually if Stallman and his Gnu just went and grew beards (and didn't write this software) it's very unlikely you'd be using Ubuntu today. GNU is not only a large part of most Linux Distros (and OpenSolaris, and most other Unices which use Gnome, and Mac OSX to some extent) it's also the project that began the momentum for creating FOSS.

You probably don't even know what GNU software consists of, like for instance the C/C++ compilers that compiled almost every single piece of software on your computer, or the libraries that so many programs rely upon, or the tools and utiilities which the boot proces is dependant upon etc.

[brallan]

i'm tempted to call it gnubugntgnu to poke fun.

I sometimes call it GNU/Linux to give respect where it's due, and because I like Richard Stallman, but then I feel a bit silly. After all, one CAN'T give credit to the hundreds of thousands who have made this OS possible.

To insist on calling it GNU/Linux to support the ideal of copyleft seems a bit roundabout. Stallman gets upset about people calling it linux because it seems to put Torvald's apoliticism above the GNU philosophy. There's no doubt in my mind that copyleft was a stroke of genius, but to obsess about putting the GNU in the title is to forget what's really important. Bit by byte, our global movement IS slowly freeing knowledge from proprietary constraints. Someday, the idea of nonfree software will sound as quaint and remote as the use of leeches in medical clinics. As residents of paradise, should we worry that "paradise" is ancient Babylonian for "Mooseturd Cul-de-sac" and let it keep us from enjoying life?

Confusing the symbol with the thing it represents is like eating the menu and leaving dinner uneaten, or arguing about flag-burning while the country itself is literally being burned to the ground.

Lets face it, it's not the pricetag or the name - what motivates almost all of us to get involved in ubuntu/gnu/linux is the four freedoms. lets keep fighting for them. Besides, it's not like we're really going to forget GNU when "g..." appears in just about every other tool under the hood.

[Delever]

I say Linux

1. To annoy the hell out of GNU
2. No one knows GNU
3. GNU/Linux sounds weird
4. Linux is shorter

Yet, we should still explain it all for those users who want to know. For example, as programmer i struggled a while searching how to make programs for Linux, while GNU would have pointed me to popular tools and better resources.

[mynameinc]

GNU/Linux_naming_controversy - Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU/Linux_naming_controversy)

[praveesh]

When I write, I use GNU/Linux . While speaking, I use Linux. It's difficult to say GNU slash Linux (as stallman said). More over, my friends are familiar with "linux" . So I use "linux"

[Hyper Tails]

Its like calling it microsoft windows I says Linux