Re: [Savannah-hackers] Re: Help wanted (sysadmin work)

[Rudy Gevaert]

On Thu, Jun 17, 2004 at 04:13:21AM -0400, Yaroslav Klyukin wrote:

> I agree. What I am saying is that it's not "the system", it a number of 
> different systems. Each time someone decides he wants to create a linux 
> OS - he creates _his_own_ OS.
> Therefore why care about somebody calling his own product (which is a 
> compilation of any kind of software) any name he wants?

They do not just call it any name.  They call it "Something Linux":
Mandrake Linux, Redhad Linux. Except Debian calls it Debian GNU/Linux.

But when you ask somebody, who doesn't know much about Free Software
and all the differences in the distributions, "What are you using?".
You will get most of the time the anser: "Linux".

How much attention does the standaard "Linux" vendor give to Free
Sofware?  Do they even mention GNU?  No, they don't.  They don't have
the same ideals as we do.

We want a completely Free operating system, they don't.

> Nowadays anybody can create his own OS using any software and call it 
> whatever for his own profit, as long as he does not break any license 
> agreements of the software used.

True.  But there is nothing wrong with saying what we do: "Hey, go a
long use Free Software, but don't forget why you should use it".  It's
a petty that we have to use more ways than that to get our message
understood.  E.g. by insisting they call it GNU/Linux in stead of
Linux.



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