Re: [Fsfe-uk] BBC's DRM Iplayer windows only

[Ian Lynch]

> > The GNU operating system predates Linux by 8 years.
> 
> So?  BSD predates both.  I know, let's call it GNU/Linux/BSD/Unix!
> Throw in SCO, Novell and IBM as well for fun, they all claim to have
> written bits of it.
> 
> As Linus' comment makes clear, although he was aware of the GNU project
> his OS was not derived from it.  Indeed, the GNU Hurd was started at
> about the same time as the Linux kernel and didn't become operational
> until long after there were several complete Linux distributions (I
> don't know anyone who uses the Hurd, is it still even supported?  The
> last release seems to have been in 1999).

I always thought the GNU bit was nothing to do with the kernel but
supporting software developed by GNU that goes around the kernel or
comes with each distro eg Gnome. If BSD code is in similar significant
quantities there is a case for including it's name. Can you confirm that
there is a significant amount of code from the BSD project in most Linux
"kernelled" distros? SCO code? I thought that notion had been
discredited in court. KDE also gets some similar recognition with Ubuntu
in Kubuntu. Can't see a problem with Kubuntu GNU/Linux myself but I'm
sure many people will just abbreviate it to Linux for convenience. 

> Well, I'm one of the people who gets annoyed with that "campaign".  As
> far as I'm concerned it's just as much hijacking the name as it would be
> to talk of "GNU/BSD", the BSD systems I know have just as much GNU/FSF
> owned software as do Linux systems.  Heck, I know Windows systems with
> as much.

That isn't the same thing though. You could campaign to call it GNU BSD
or GNU Windows if you wanted to on those grounds but it doesn't
invalidate a request for originators of code distributed with the Linux
kernel to ask for recognition and some people think its fair to do so.

Ian
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