Re: Question for Bastian Nocera

[William Jon McCann <william jon mccann gmail com>]

Hey,

On Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 11:40 AM, Bastien Nocera <hadess hadess net> wrote:
> On Mon, 2010-06-14 at 09:21 -0600, Stormy Peters wrote:
> <snip>
>>
>> Speaking as Stormy and not as ED, I think this is a losing battle. I
>> agree we need to continue to educate people but I don't think
>> GNU/Linux is going to be the way it happens. Millions of people now
>> say Linux and GNU/Linux is harder to say, uglier sounding (hard G's
>> are not easy), implies that we feel left out, etc. I really don't
>> think it's going to be something that catches on no matter how many of
>> us push it.
>
> I'll add that people writing KDE or GNOME don't push for a
> GNOME/GNU/Linux, or even GNOME/X.org/GNU/Linux. Just mentioning
> GNU/Linux is disingenious.
>>
>> Names often do not include all the components. I drive a Pontiac car
>> that includes many other parts. We drink "coke" that includes many
>> other brands. I use "kleenex" that is often not kleenex at all.
>>
>>
>> We need to work on other campaigns to spread the word about the value
>> of free software.

Richard is right, of course, that Linux is just a kernel and not an
operating system.  It would be very difficult to imagine how Meego,
Litl, Android, WebOS, etc are the same operating system.  On the other
hand, GNU+Linux isn't really an operating system either - or at least
not for most people.  But GNOME can be if we want it.

Jon