-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

At some point hitherto, Rob Ransbottom hath spake thusly:
> > How does it not?  The vendors name their products; that is their
> > right.  Even in the world of printed text, the producer of a
> 
> What you say is true enough, but is not responsive to the statement I
> made.  

Well, I have to disagree, but it's clear that debating it further will
get no one anywhere...

> That rms requests anyone distributing current linux distros to publicly
> & obviously credit GNU is not unreasonable.

I AGREE WHOLEHEARTEDLY.

However, to ask people to do so by calling the system something it
isn't is not the right way to do it.

BTW, IANAL, but I think if you looked into it, you'd find that his
request is trademark infringement; i.e. illegal.  It just so happens
that Linus doesn't care.  He has stated publically that he thinks rms
is wrong, but he doesn't care what he or others call it.

I don't have the link, but it's on the web.  You can google for it as
easily as I can.  Probably look for GNU/Linux in the LKML archives...

> > What exactly makes them GNU/Linux?  The fact that they include a fair
> > amount of (OPTIONAL) GNU application software that may or may not ever
> > be installed by the user?  It's true that there is a large amount of
> > GNU software shipped with a Linux system; almost none of which is
> > actually required to be installed for the system to be useful.  This
> 
> Try stripping a system of GNU stuff, then tell me how well it runs and
> what you actually used it for.

As I have more or less already stated elsewhere in this thread, with
the exception of glibc, which is only one very small piece of a very
large system, I can do virtually everything I need to without any
GNU code.  Authoring the C libraries does not get you the right to
name any system that uses them.  If there were no glibc, someone else
would have written C libraries...

I do use gcc and gmake for development, but I could easily use Kylix
instead, or some other free compiler (from the list I already posted)
and berkeley make.  I also use a variety of other GNU programs
(GNOME), all of which could be replaced by KDE programs.

> > software was compiled with gcc, but if I were to use a Windows system
> > with a MyCo web browser and MyCo office suite that was compiled by
> > Borland C/C++ compiler, does that make it Borland/Windows?
> 
> Not the same issue.  Though Microsoft officially said that the browser
> was a core element of the OS.  :-)  

It's exactly the same issue.  All of GNU software is application
software.  Just like a web browser or an office suite.  Application
software does not a system make...

- -- 
Derek Martin               ddm@pizzashack.org    
- ---------------------------------------------
I prefer mail encrypted with PGP/GPG!
GnuPG Key ID: 0x81CFE75D
Retrieve my public key at http://pgp.mit.edu
Learn more about it at http://www.gnupg.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org

iD8DBQE9buGNdjdlQoHP510RApsqAJ990S2fzv58mMQQcgML0UOMvV3T/wCgsp+y
sbxWvjwJtJTB19mMWuw9VF8=
=1aAa
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----