You’ve probably seen the “I’d like to interject for a moment” quotation that is frequently attributed to Richard Stallman about how Linux should be referred to as GNU/Linux.…
""why stop at GNU? Why not also recognize BSD, XINU, PBM, OpenSSL, Samba and countless other FLOSS projects that need to be included to form a workable distro?
“The bottom line is that ‘Linux’ is what the vast majority of people call it. So that’s what it should be called, because that’s how language works.”"
This argument makes sense for natural language (where one can argue that a word “is a real word” or that a word means something simply because it is commonly used in that manner), not so much for proper nouns in my opinion. Linux is a specific thing, created by a specific person (who named it after himself), developed by a specific team for specific purposes. Whether or not people mistakenly believe other unrelated things are also Linux doesn’t change the truth of what Linux actually is.
If “the vast majority of people” mistakenly believed the Earth was flat or that the sun revolved around it, that does not suddenly make it so. “The vast majority of people” being ignorant should be taken as an opportunity to address that ignorance, not perpetuate it.
If “the vast majority of people” mistakenly believed the Earth was flat or that the sun revolved around it, that does not suddenly make it so.
Another False equivalence. That is an example of a proven fact that some people don’t accept because of true ignorance or wilful ignorance. Anyone who knows what GNU/Linux is accept its concept. Its just that there is no need to go your way to mention written or verbal “I use GNU/XINU/PBM/OpenSSL/Samba/KDE/Graphite-nord-dark-theme/Linux.”
See my other comment.
""why stop at GNU? Why not also recognize BSD, XINU, PBM, OpenSSL, Samba and countless other FLOSS projects that need to be included to form a workable distro?
“The bottom line is that ‘Linux’ is what the vast majority of people call it. So that’s what it should be called, because that’s how language works.”"
https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/it-linux-or-gnulinux
This argument makes sense for natural language (where one can argue that a word “is a real word” or that a word means something simply because it is commonly used in that manner), not so much for proper nouns in my opinion. Linux is a specific thing, created by a specific person (who named it after himself), developed by a specific team for specific purposes. Whether or not people mistakenly believe other unrelated things are also Linux doesn’t change the truth of what Linux actually is.
If “the vast majority of people” mistakenly believed the Earth was flat or that the sun revolved around it, that does not suddenly make it so. “The vast majority of people” being ignorant should be taken as an opportunity to address that ignorance, not perpetuate it.
If the vast majority of people believed the earth is called gazorp that would absolutely suddenly make it so.
Another False equivalence. That is an example of a proven fact that some people don’t accept because of true ignorance or wilful ignorance. Anyone who knows what GNU/Linux is accept its concept. Its just that there is no need to go your way to mention written or verbal “I use GNU/XINU/PBM/OpenSSL/Samba/KDE/Graphite-nord-dark-theme/Linux.”
See my other comment.