Re: forwarded message from Richard Stallman

[Richard Stallman <rms gnu org>]

    Certainly Richard Stallman and the rest of the contributors of the GNU
    Project deserve credit for their enormous work, but I imagine at this
    point it's probably a little too late in the game for a change of this
    magnitude.

Many people have told me that it is "impossible to change" this, and
advised me to give up.  I didn't listen, and that's good, because this
campaign is succeeding somewhat--some people now do say "GNU/Linux".
Recently this term has appeared in the New York Times and the Boston
Globe.  I don't expect to convince *everyone* to use the term, but
each person who does so helps to clear up the usual confusion.

If you recognize that the name GNU/Linux is more appropriate, you too
can use it.  No one can stop you.

     Regardless, most of us who've been in this business any time
    have been well aware that GNU formed a major portion of Linux 

We have not developed any part of Linux.  We developed the larger GNU
operating system, in which Linux is typically used.

     It's sad now that anyone would make an effort to add further
    dividing lines

I hope this isn't meant to apply to me.  If it is, it is a
misunderstanding.  I am asking people to give the GNU Project credit
for developing the GNU operating system, by mentioning "GNU" in the
system's name.  There's no dividing line here.

    This apparent drive toward demanding credit brings
    that aspiration into question and certainly demeans any air of
    selflessness.

I can see how it might look that way, if you're assuming that the
issue is just about ego.  If only ego were at stake, I would agree that
the issue was not very important.

But something much more important is at stake: whether the GNU Project
can spread the idealistic philosophy which brought the GNU/Linux
system into existene in the first place.

The name of Linux has become associated with the apolitical philosophy
of Linus and the Open Source movement.  Most fans of the GNU/Linux
system don't know that our idealism created the system they love.  We
want them to know this, so that they won't dismiss our idealism as
"impracticable".  We have to make sure they know where the system
really came from.

    I think it's a foolish to assume that any of us out here
    didn't realize how great Richard's group's contribution really was.

Based on my experience, I would bet that many people on these lists
think they know, but what they heard is just part of it.  Probably
many think that "GNU developed tools that are used in Linux."  That's
quite an understatement.

But even if everyone on these lists does know the situation, most
reporters don't.  Nowadays, when they write stories about the GNU
system, they usually call it "Linux", they usually don't know we had
anything to do with it, and they usually don't even talk to us.

    I also think the Linux industry making an effort to credit the GNU
    Project would be well spent as well as perhaps even companies such as

My experience has been that consistently using the name "GNU/Linux"
informs people better than ten minutes of detailed explanation.

A few years ago, I talked with people about their efforts to explain
the situation without using that term, and what results they got.  The
message was going in one ear and out the other.

Looking at what was happening, I concluded that the reason for this
was that calling the system "Linux" implies that anything named "GNU"
could only have had a secondary role in developing the system.  Once
people form that conceptual structure, if you try to tell them that
the system's principal developer was the GNU Project, you are trying
to change the structure.  They tend to assume you don't really mean
what you're saying, because the truth just "couldn't be true".

    However I do object to a "demand" as opposed to a request 

I don't know of anyone who is trying to force you to write
"GNU/Linux", so that is just a hypothetical issue.  The real issue is
that writing GNU/Linux is the right thing to do.

Please see http://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html for more
explanation.