GNU/Linux naming debate

[jc at trillian.mit.edu (John Chambers)]

| Remember that meeting a few years ago (in the latter days of the BCS
| Linux SIG) when Richard Stallman visited us unannounced to make
| his case that the group should be called the GNU/Linux group?

Well, IMHO, I think we should start calling it "lignux".  That oughta
be good for a couple of running puns ...

| The debate continues.  Look on the front page of the Sunday Globe
| business section for Hiawatha Bray's story about the open software
| movement, complete with photos of Torvalds and Stallman.  Linus gets
| two photos, RMS gets one bigger one.

Also, I noticed a few factual errors.  For instance, in the  list  of
other  open-software  "products",  perl  was  described as a language
designed for  writing  the  scripts  behind  the  Web.   This  surely
indicates a great deal of prescience on the part of Larry Wall, since
the earliest versions of perl were posted on the  net  several  years
before the first web software appeared (1987 vs 1989).

(I just checked with the web site, and noticed something interesting:
the  online  version  of the article doesn't make the claim that perl
was invented for writing web scripts.  Maybe someone already told the
Globe about this claim for ESP on Larry's part.  ;-)

| News reporters seem to focus their comments on how Linux affects
| Microsoft's future prospects.  Personally, I see Linux having a far
| greater long-term impact on Sun Microsystems than on Microsoft.  

Has anyone anywhere actually ever made a choice between  DOS/W95  and
any Unix-like system? I've never seen any real evidence that they are
competing at all.  People who want one typically don't even  look  at
the  other.  Calling them competitors is like thinking that autos are
competing with bicycles and airplanes.  Maybe someone  somewhere  has
occasionally  made  such  a  tradeoff,  but treating them as economic
competitors mostly indicates cluelessness.  The main effect of  linux
on  the  DOS  world has been to increase hardware sales by 10% or so,
mostly to people who would have otherwise paid somewhat more for  Sun
or HP hardware.

| Poll:  who's right?  Did Linus tender Linux as a contribution to the
| GNU project, or did RMS tender the GNU environment to the Linux
| community?  ;-)

Good troll ...

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