Re: GNU/Linux Naming

[Alfred M. Szmidt]

   > Of course, the proper name for the operating system is GNU and
   > Linux provides one of it's kernels. The combination of these two
   > words is GNU/Linux. If you used Sun's kernel you would call the
   > system GNU/Solarix and if you used the BSD operating system (as
   > an alternative to GNU) you would be running BSD/Solarix.
   >
   > There are many different variations "out there" and they all have
   > different names. If you're running
   > Debian/Ubuntu/Gentoo/RedHat/Suse you're probably running a
   > GNU/Linux system. If you're running OS X

   Except most of those aren't GNU systems.  Go read the definition of
   the GNU system at gnu.org, and you'll see that most of them do not
   meet it.  They are non-GNU systems that happen to have all the
   components of the GNU system included, but also contain proprietary
   non-free components that are not allowed in the GNU system.

Ofcourse the meet the criteria of a GNU system, that are variants of
it.  Just including some non-free software doesn't magically convert a
GNU system into a non-GNU system.  You are confusion two things, _the_
GNU system and _a_ GNU system, GNU/Linux is _a_ GNU system, but it is
not _the_ GNU system.