Stop Microsoft
Operating Systems => Linux and UNIX => Topic started by: Siplus on 9 January 2003, 08:05
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what is gnu?
i've seen someplaces: gnu= gnu's not unix...
when i'm reading about debian, i often see something like debain gnu/linux or something like that...
does gnu signify that something is 'not unix', but unix based? or something like that
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All the information you need is at www.gnu.org (http://www.gnu.org/). It's well worth the time to read over the philosophies, the GPL, what Freedom is all about, as well as what GNU is. It's good reading.
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yes it is indeed worth it!
to whet your appetite though, GNU is an operating system conceived way back when by richard stallman, because he was pissed off at unix being proprietary. he called it 'gnu's not unix' to help avoid any legal hassles because he was trying to make an OS that did exactly the same things as unix, but which had totally different (or original at least) underlying code, code which would then be free to be released for anybody to see and modify. this was his way of saying that you didn't need to dance to at&t's tune (or anybody's) to get a decent operating system.
sadly gnu ran into a lot of problems coming up with a working kernel (which they still have not resolved 20 years later) but luckily they were eclipsed, overtaken and partially absorbed by other endeavours in the meantime, and GNU helped create the varied and full operating systems we have today. in linux for instance, even though the basic system is linux, many of the utilities and quite a few of the programs are from the GNU system, and are still maintained by the free software foundation for the good of all users of the software.
[ January 09, 2003: Message edited by: Calum ]