Re: A rose by any other name (was Re: [OT] Re: configure script)

[David Masterson <dmaster@synopsys.com>]

[followups to gnu.misc.discuss]

>>>>> David desJardins writes:

> Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

>> Calling the system GNU/Linux is easiest and most efficient way to
>> help correct the confusion.

> My experience is that this doesn't work for anyone.  The people who
> understand the history and the components already have an opinion.
> The people who don't know the history or the components think, at
> most, that GNU/Linux is some sort of variant of Linux, like
> "FreeBSD" is a spinoff of BSD, and "SCO Unix" was a spinoff of Unix.

Or "RedHat Linux" and "SuSE Linux"...

> On the other hand, I don't have any problem with the request, and I
> don't understand why Mr Kastrup rants about it.

From what I've seen, my guess would be that he feels (rightly or
wrongly) that it is a request that comes from RMS and not really from
"all the contributors to GNU".  Since the GNU project is such an open
and eclectic project that has been going on for 18 years and
comprising hundreds or thousands of people, it's hard to ascribe a lot
of weight to the request of one member of the project (even when it is
RMS).  Some (like Mr. Kastrup) might think that the copyright all over
the code would be enough.  Had the request come sooner in the life of
"Linux" (say, around the time it started to graduate from kernel to
O/S), then acceptance of the GNU moniker might've been easier (there
is also the notorious tendency of software engineers to shorten names
to combat).

-- 
David Masterson                David DOT Masterson AT synopsys DOT com
Sr. R&D Engineer               Synopsys, Inc.
Software Engineering           Sunnyvale, CA