GNU vs. Linux

Many supporters of the "open-source" community today run some sort of version of what they call a Linux distribution. Personally, I run Ubuntu on my main computing machine, and I too am guilty of oftentimes referring to it as a Linux distribution. However, just I few hours ago I pledged to do that no longer. From now on when I refer to Ubuntu, I will refer to it as a distribution of GNU/Linux, or GNU with a Linux kernel. After all thats what it really is.

GNU began as a free operating system in the 1980's, the brainchild of Richard Stallman and his Free Software Foundation. Stallman together with the foundation, set to creating the operating system, and within a few years had the entire operating system completed, except for one vital component: the kernel. The free software foundation tried to develop a kernel over an existing freeware micro-kernel, but the project was met with limited success. The answer to the problem came in 1991 when the ever-famous Linus Torvalds created the Linux kernel, under his own open-source software license. When news of this kernel reached the Free Software Foundation, the simply used the Linux kernel to complete the GNU (GNU not Unix) operating system.

Today, most people simply refer to their GNU/Linux operating systems as Linux, but this obviously isn't giving credit where credit is due. Without GNU, none of us would be able to have the operating systems that we all know and love today, yet we still give all of the credit to Linus. Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds never even shared the same point of view. Whereas the Free Software Foundation was interested in free software, Linus was actually a huge supporter of proprietary software, and the existence of non-GNU proprietary Linux flavors is proof of this. Today, the Free Software Foundation doesn't really even support many flavors of GNU/Linux for the fact that the distros contain proprietary software or firmware, with the exception of a few obscure distros such as gnusense. But, the point of the story has been made. From now on, try to give credit where it is due, refer to your operating system as GNU/Linux or GNU with a Linux kernel, not just Linux.