this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2023
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I feel like you misunderstood. Operating system has many functions, one of the most important ones is talking to hardware. GNU cannot do that because that's the kernel's job. And the kernel is Linux. So they claim they're an operating system but can't do the most fundamental thing an operating system needs to do.
Well by that token Linux can't claim to be an OS either, since as your own comment mentions it only performs one function of an OS. It's important that it can talk to hardware but it's not an OS if it can't do anything else.
That's debatable, Linux (the kernel) does much more than communicate with hardware - it manages memory allocations, handles processes etc. GNU is a set of tools. While some tools are needed for the OS to even make sense (without tools it just sits there and does nothing), you could write a simple program used as the init process and nothing else than the program and Linux is needed. Which leads me to believe that the kernel is the OS.
What? GNU has a kernel, it's called Linux!
no. gnu does have a kernel. But it's not linux. it's called gnu hurd. It is actually about a year older than linux. It isn't finished, and barely anyone uses it
GNU Hurd technically isn't the kernel. GNU Mach is.
GNU has both Hurd and Linux, very powerful indeed!
just, no. linux is simply not a gnu project. at all.
If it were, we wouldn't be hearing about them wanting to call it gnu/linux because, in their own words, the os is "gnu with linux added"
they'd just want to call it gnu.
a very quick google search could have told you that
I don't use "google search" because it is nonfree software; linux was not started by the GNU project members. However, GNU does have a linux, it's called Linux-libre.
GNU is the operating system in its entirety. GNU/Linux is the name used to best describe the exact operating system by giving principal credit to the Linux foundation. The GNU part is to highlight the fact that it is a libre operating system first and foremost.
Perhaps I need to reread the essays again, but the main takeaway is that what's at stake here isn't credit but the political legacy of software freedom. Something that is made obvious by your last remark.
so that is linux-libre, not linux. linux still is not a gnu project.
Great observation! I'm glad you feel better now.
just curious.... which foss search engine do you use?
Searxng, Whoogle, Librex, Mullvad Leta (accessible with a Mullvad subscription)
I also use brave search with many of its SaaS features turned off (AI summary, discussions) because Brave has a independent index thats useful to consult. The previous ones I mentioned are proxies to already established indices.
searxng is a meta search engine. It uses google search, among others. it is not a search engine itself.
whoogle uses google. so it's not a search engine itself
so does librex.
and so does mullvad leta