"GNU/Linux naming controversy The GNU/Linux naming controversy is a dispute between members of the free software community and open-source software community over whether to refer to computer operating systems that use a combination of GNU software and the Linux kernel as ""GNU/Linux"" or ""Linux"". Proponents of the term ""Linux"" argue that it is far more commonly used by the public and media, and that it serves as a generic term for systems that combine that kernel with software from multiple other sources. Proponents of the term ""GNU/Linux"" note that ""GNU"" alone would be just as good a name for GNU"
"GNU Project. Because the system is more widely referred as ""Linux"" people tend to ""think it's all Linux, that it was all started by Mr. Torvalds in 1991, and they think it all comes from his vision of life, and that's the really bad problem."" ""Linux"" is by far the more widespread name. Eric S. Raymond writes (in the ""Linux"" entry of the Jargon File): When Linus Torvalds was asked in the documentary ""Revolution OS"" whether the name ""GNU/Linux"" was justified, he replied: An earlier comment by Torvalds on the naming controversy was: The name ""GNU/Linux,"" particularly when using Stallman's"
"with commercial support. The naming remains controversial. Referring to the complete system as simply ""Linux"" is common usage. However, the Free Software Foundation, and many others, advocate the use of the term ""GNU/Linux"", saying that it is a more accurate name for the whole operating system. Linux adoption grew among businesses and governments in the 1990s and 2000s. In the English-speaking world at least, Ubuntu and its derivatives became a relatively popular group of Linux distributions. When the USL v. BSDi lawsuit was settled out of court in 1993, FreeBSD and NetBSD (both derived from 386BSD) were released as free"
"together with other software, especially that of the GNU project. This quickly became the most popular adoption of GNU software. In June 1994 in GNU's bulletin, Linux was referred to as a ""free UNIX clone"", and the Debian project began calling its product ""Debian GNU/Linux"". In May 1996, Richard Stallman published the editor Emacs 19.31, in which the type of system was renamed from Linux to Lignux. This spelling was intended to refer specifically to the combination of GNU and Linux, but this was soon abandoned in favor of ""GNU/Linux"". This name garnered varying reactions. The GNU and Debian projects"
"Stallman visited UC Berkeley where Spencer Kimball and Peter Mattis asked if they could change ""General"" to ""GNU"" (the name given to the operating system created by Stallman). Richard Stallman approved and the definition of the acronym GIMP was changed to be the ""GNU"" Image Manipulation Program. This reflected its new existence as being developed as Free Software as a part of the GNU Project. The number of computer architectures and operating systems supported has expanded significantly since its first release. The first release supported UNIX systems, such as Linux, SGI IRIX and HP-UX. Since the initial release, GIMP has"
"machines"" (with ""many of the utilities and libraries"" from GNU), but the January 1995 ""Bulletin"" switched to the term ""GNU/Linux"" instead. Stallman's and the FSF's efforts to include ""GNU"" in the name started around 1994, but were reportedly mostly via private communications (such as the above-mentioned request to Debian) until 1996. In May 1996, Stallman released Emacs 19.31 with the Autoconf system target ""linux"" changed to ""lignux"" (shortly thereafter changed to ""linux-gnu"" in emacs 19.32), and included an essay ""Linux and the GNU system"" suggesting that people use the terms ""Linux-based GNU system"" (or ""GNU/Linux system"" or ""Lignux"" for short)."
"GNU software to form a working operating system. The FSF maintains that an operating system built using the Linux kernel and GNU tools and utilities, should be considered a variant of GNU, and promotes the term ""GNU/Linux"" for such systems (leading to the GNU/Linux naming controversy). The GNU Project has endorsed Linux distributions, such as gNewSense, Trisquel and Parabola GNU/Linux-libre. Other GNU variants which do not use the Hurd as a kernel include Debian GNU/kFreeBSD and Debian GNU/NetBSD, bringing to fruition the early plan of GNU on a BSD kernel. The GNU Project recommends that contributors assign the copyright for"
"and common usage, however, refers to this family of operating systems simply as ""Linux"", as do many large Linux distributions (for example, SUSE Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Linux). By contrast, Linux distributions containing only free software use ""GNU/Linux"" or simply ""GNU"", such as Trisquel GNU/Linux, Parabola GNU/Linux-libre, BLAG Linux and GNU, and gNewSense. , about 8% to 13% of a modern Linux distribution is made of GNU components (the range depending on whether GNOME is considered part of GNU), as determined by counting lines of source code making up Ubuntu's ""Natty"" release; meanwhile, 6% is taken by the Linux"
"ago"". As of 2015, critical reception has been much more positive. For example, Debian, a Linux distribution that had historically used GNOME 2, switched to Xfce when GNOME 3 was released but readopted GNOME 3 in time for the release of Debian 8 ""Jessie"". GNOME Shell is the default interface for Ubuntu since version 17.10, replacing Unity. GNOME 3 has modern approach in User Interface Design and naming applications: GNOME GNOME () is a desktop environment for Unix-like operating systems, composed entirely of free and open-source software. GNOME was originally an acronym for ""GNU Network Object Model Environment"", but the"
"variants which combine the GNU operating system software with software from other sources. ""GNU/Linux"" is a term promoted by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and its founder Richard Stallman. Proponents call for the correction of the more extended term, on the grounds that it doesn't give credit to the major contributor and the associated free software philosophy. GNU is a longstanding project begun in 1984 to develop a free operating system. It is argued that when the Linux kernel was independently created in 1991, it merely provided a substantial missing piece. Several distributions employ the FSF-endorsed name, such as Debian,"
"GNU Aspell GNU Aspell, usually called just Aspell, is a free software spell checker designed to replace Ispell. It is the standard spell checker for the GNU operating system. It also compiles for other Unix-like operating systems and Windows. The main program is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (GNU LGPL), the documentation under the GNU Free Documentation License (GNU FDL). Dictionaries for it are available for about 70 languages. The primary maintainer is Kevin Atkinson. Unlike Ispell, Aspell can easily check UTF-8 documents without having to use a special dictionary. Aspell will also do its best to"
"Linux kernel and GNU components. In 1992, the Yggdrasil Linux distribution adopted the name ""Linux/GNU/X"". In Usenet and mailing-list discussions, one can find usages of ""GNU/Linux"" as early as 1992 and of ""GNU+Linux"" as early as 1993. The Debian project, which was at one time sponsored by the Free Software Foundation, switched to calling its product ""Debian GNU/Linux"" in early 1994; This change followed a request by Richard Stallman (who initially proposed ""LiGNUx,"" but suggested ""GNU/Linux"" instead after hearing complaints about the awkwardness of the former term). GNU's June 1994 ""Bulletin"" describes ""Linux"" as a ""free Unix system for 386"
"Hurd kernel is not yet production-ready, this is how the GNU system is usually used. The combination of GNU software and the Linux kernel is commonly known as Linux (or less frequently GNU/Linux; see GNU/Linux naming controversy). Richard Stallman, the founder of the project, views GNU as a ""technical means to a social end"". Relatedly Lawrence Lessig states in his introduction to the second edition of Stallman's book ""Free Software, Free Society"" that in it Stallman has written about ""the social aspects of software and how Free Software can create community and social justice"". Development of the GNU operating system"
"not part of the GNU project, it was developed using GCC and other GNU programming tools and was released as free software under the GNU General Public License. As of present, the GNU project has not released a version of GNU/Hurd that is suitable for production environments since the commencement of the GNU/Hurd project over . Today a stable version (or variant) of GNU can be run by combining the GNU packages with the Linux kernel, making a functional Unix-like system. The GNU project calls this GNU/Linux, and the defining features are the combination of: Within the GNU website, a"
"will not lead to people valuing and defending their freedom. Two alternatives which Stallman does accept are ""software libre"" and ""unfettered software"", but ""free software"" is the term he asks people to use in English. For similar reasons, he argues for the term ""proprietary software"" rather than ""closed-source software"", when referring to software that is not free software. Stallman asks that the term ""GNU/Linux"", which he pronounces , be used to refer to the operating system created by combining the GNU system and the Linux kernel. Stallman refers to this operating system as ""a variant of GNU, and the GNU"
"to coordinate efforts for internationalization and localization and accessibility of that software. GNOME is the default desktop environment on many major Linux distributions including Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, SUSE Linux Enterprise (exclusively), Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, Oracle Linux, Scientific Linux, SteamOS, Tails, Kali Linux, Antergos and Endless OS; it is also default on Solaris, a major Unix operating system. GNOME provides two different login sessions, one is based on GNOME Panel and Metacity (Window Manager) that provides a traditional taskbar (panel) and start menu, this session is called GNOME Flashback, another one is based on GNOME Shell and Mutter (Window"
"the GNU General Public License. Originally developed based on the ClanLib library, the project later switched to SDL. Due to the cross-platform SDL middle-layer the game was ported to many OSes and platforms: Windows and Unix-like systems, including Linux, FreeBSD, Android, AmigaOS 4, AROS, Maemo, Symbian^3 and Mac OS X. In November 2010 the old name <nowiki>'</nowiki>""Wormux""<nowiki>'</nowiki> was dropped in favor for <nowiki>'</nowiki>""WarMUX""<nowiki>'</nowiki>. The name <nowiki>'</nowiki>""Wormux""<nowiki>'</nowiki> originally was a homage to the old classic ""Worms"" games, which were among the most popular of the artillery game genre. The developers decided for renaming their project in order to avoid possible confusion."
"Gnulib Gnulib, also called the GNU portability library, is a collection of software subroutines which are designed to be usable on many operating systems. The goal of the project is to make it easy for free software authors to make their software run on many operating systems. Since source is designed to be copied from gnulib, it is not a library per-se, as much as a collection of portable idioms to be used in other projects. Making a software package work on a system other than the original system it worked on is usually called ""porting"" the software to the"
"to ensure that the ""entire"" software of a computer grants its users all freedom rights (use, share, study, modify), even the most fundamental and important part, the operating system (including all its numerous utility programs), needed to be free software. According to its manifesto, the founding goal of the project was to build a free operating system and, if possible, ""everything useful that normally comes with a Unix system so that one could get along without any software that is not free."" Stallman decided to call this operating system ""GNU"" (a recursive acronym meaning """"GNU's not Unix""""), basing its design"
"GNOME GNOME () is a desktop environment for Unix-like operating systems, composed entirely of free and open-source software. GNOME was originally an acronym for ""GNU Network Object Model Environment"", but the acronym was dropped because it no longer reflected the vision of the GNOME project. GNOME is developed by The GNOME Project, part of the GNU Project. The GNOME Project is composed of both volunteers and paid contributors, the largest corporate contributor being Red Hat. It is an international project that aims to develop software frameworks for the development of software, to program end-user applications based on these frameworks, and"
"and has been ported to many other processor architectures. Another recurring topic in the debate discusses alternatives to Linux and MINIX, such as GNU (Hurd) and 4.4BSD. Tanenbaum suggested the former in his first post, stating that unlike Linux, it was a ""modern"" system"". In his second post, he mentioned that ""... 5 years from now everyone will be running free GNU on their 200 MIPS, 64M SPARCstation-5"". Several debaters disagreed that GNU was a suitable alternative. Kevin Brown called it vaporware, and stated that Linux would likely benefit from the x86 architecture which would continue to be common and"
"use the name, although most people simply use the term ""Linux"" to refer to the combination. Torvalds announced in 1996 that there would be a mascot for Linux, a penguin. This was due to the fact when they were about to select the mascot, Torvalds mentioned he was bitten by a little penguin (""Eudyptula minor"") on a visit to the National Zoo & Aquarium in Canberra, Australia. Larry Ewing provided the original draft of today's well known mascot based on this description. The name Tux was suggested by James Hughes as derivative of ""Torvalds' UniX"", along with being short for"
"alternative kernel with the release of the Atari Falcon, slightly altering the MiNT acronym into ""MiNT is Now TOS"". Atari bundled MiNT with a multitasking version of the Graphics Environment Manager (GEM) under the name ""MultiTOS"" as a floppy disk based installer. After Atari left the computer market, MiNT development continued under the name ""FreeMiNT"", and is now maintained by a team of volunteers. FreeMiNT development follows a classic open-source approach, with the source code hosted on a public CVS (Concurrent Versions System) repository and development discussed in a public mailing list. Development has since moved to the publicly browsable"
"Ubuntu derivative named ""Gnubuntu"" consisting entirely of free software, on 24 November 2005. Due to Richard Stallman's disapproval of the name, the project was later renamed ""Ubuntu-libre"". Stallman had previously endorsed a distribution based on Ubuntu called gNewSense, and has criticized Ubuntu for using proprietary and non-free software in successive distributions, most notably, Ubuntu 7.04. While introducing Ubuntu 7.10, Mark Shuttleworth said that it would Gobuntu was officially announced by Mark Shuttleworth on 10 July 2007 and daily builds of Gobuntu 7.10 began to be publicly released. The initial version, Gobuntu 7.10, was released on 18 October 2007, as an"
"on ""technical advantage"" rather than ""freedom"" of the Linux kernel developers. In the case of the Linux kernel, notable and recurring examples of this focus on technical advantage over freedom come from the long-time inclusion in the Linux kernel of many non-free firmware files and other files with non-free license terms. The ordinary understanding of ""operating system"" includes both the kernel—the specific subsystem that directly interfaces with the hardware—and the ""userland"" software that is employed by the user and by application software to control the computer. Moreover, both the name ""GNU"" and the name ""Linux"" are intentionally related to the"
"Gentoo Linux Gentoo Linux (pronounced ) is a Linux distribution built using the Portage package management system. Unlike a binary software distribution, the source code is compiled locally according to the user's preferences and is often optimized for the specific type of computer. Precompiled binaries are available for some larger packages or those with no available source code. Gentoo Linux is named after the fast-swimming gentoo penguin. The name was chosen to reflect the potential speed improvements of machine-specific optimization, which is a major feature of Gentoo. Gentoo package management is designed to be modular, portable, easy to maintain, and"
"Linux distributors. In 1996, Torvalds and some affected organizations sued him to have the trademark assigned to Torvalds, and, in 1997, the case was settled. The licensing of the trademark has since been handled by the Linux Mark Institute (LMI). Torvalds has stated that he trademarked the name only to prevent someone else from using it. LMI originally charged a nominal sublicensing fee for use of the Linux name as part of trademarks, but later changed this in favor of offering a free, perpetual worldwide sublicense. The Free Software Foundation (FSF) prefers ""GNU/Linux"" as the name when referring to the"
"cycles, but is often considered more as an alternative to other lightweight desktop environments. For a while, GNOME and KDE enjoyed the status of the most popular Linux desktop environments; later, other desktop environments grew in popularity. In April 2011, GNOME introduced a new interface concept with its version 3, while a popular Linux distribution Ubuntu introduced its own new desktop environment, Unity. Some users preferred to keep the traditional interface concept of GNOME 2, resulting in the creation of MATE as a GNOME 2 fork. The most common desktop environment on personal computers is Microsoft Windows' built-in interface. It"
"Ubuntu via a PPA, Fedora (as a spin), openSUSE, Arch Linux, Gentoo Linux, Mageia, Debian, Pardus, Manjaro Linux, Antergos, Sabayon 8 and FreeBSD. It is the default desktop environment of Cubuntu, and Cr OS Linux. Although still in the early stages of development, the reception of Cinnamon has been generally positive. Its supporters perceive it as more flexible and powerful than GNOME Shell while providing advanced features. In their review of Linux Mint 17, Ars Technica described Cinnamon 2.2 as ""being perhaps the most user-friendly and all-around useful desktop available on any platform."" In their review of Linux Mint 18,"
"Mellon's Mach microkernel in a project called GNU Hurd, which has yet to achieve the maturity level required for full POSIX compliance. In 1991, Linus Torvalds, a Finnish student, used the GNU's development tools to produce the free monolithic Linux kernel. The existing programs from the GNU project were readily ported to run on the resultant platform. Most sources use the name ""Linux"" to refer to the general-purpose operating system thus formed, while Stallman and the FSF call it ""GNU/Linux"". This has been a longstanding naming controversy in the free software community. Stallman argues that not using GNU in the"
"Project's GNU Debugger, and miscellaneous utilities. MinGW does not rely on third-party C runtime dynamic-link library (DLL) files, and because the runtime libraries are not distributed using the GNU General Public License (GPL), it is not necessary to distribute the source code with the programs produced, unless a GPL library is used elsewhere in the program. MinGW can be run either on the native Microsoft Windows platform, cross-hosted on Linux (or other Unix), or ""cross-native"" on Cygwin. MinGW was originally called mingw32 (""Minimalist GNU for W32""), following the GNU convention whereby Windows is shortened as ""W32"". The numbers were dropped"
"Trisquel Trisquel (officially Trisquel GNU/Linux) is a computer operating system, a Linux distribution, derived from another distribution, Ubuntu. The project aims for a fully free software system without proprietary software or firmware and uses a version of Ubuntu's modified kernel, with the non-free code (binary blobs) removed. Trisquel relies on user donations. Its logo is a triskelion, a Celtic symbol. Trisquel is listed by the Free Software Foundation as a distribution that contains only free software. Four basic versions are available. The standard Trisquel distribution includes the MATE desktop environment and graphical user interface (GUI), and English, Spanish and 48"
"LiveCD, , , OpenNAO, PapugLinux, Phaeronix, PixieLive, , , Securix, Shark Linux, , TinHat, Toorox, , Vidalinux, , , , ZerahStar Zesktop Gentoo Linux Gentoo Linux (pronounced ) is a Linux distribution built using the Portage package management system. Unlike a binary software distribution, the source code is compiled locally according to the user's preferences and is often optimized for the specific type of computer. Precompiled binaries are available for some larger packages or those with no available source code. Gentoo Linux is named after the fast-swimming gentoo penguin. The name was chosen to reflect the potential speed improvements of"