Why Linux is portrayed as a Penguin?

  • raubarno
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    1 year ago

    As the others made a good point, Linux is the kernel (program that connects hardware altogether and manages processes). GNU is an organisation beginning in 1983 that made some vital userland programs (Bash, GCC, readline, GNOME, GTK, GIMP, etc.) as a replacement of the proprietary ones found in UNIX and Windows. Linux is created by a Finnish student Linus Torvalds and is not a part of the GNU project but it’s been licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL), the first free software license.

    Linux is used by a lot of companies, and some of the products that have Linux inside refuse to accept the paradigm of software freedom. Examples of this are: Chrome OS, Windows Subsystem for Linux, Google Android and some (but not all) appliances (like routers) that are locked-in and contain proprietary blobs.

    Therefore, in technical discussions, I use the word “Linux” to refer to the OS, as “this software is compatible with Linux”. But, when I want to stress out software freedom, given a large influence of the GNU project, I say “GNU/Linux”.

    • nrabulinski@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      There’s quite a few Linux distributions or whatever you want to call it that aren’t associated with GNU or are not based on GNU software

        • nrabulinski@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          So calling those which are just as open but not associated with GNU GNU/Linux is disingenuous, despite the influence of the GNU organization

            • nrabulinski@beehaw.org
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              1 year ago

              The person I replied to specifically said

              Therefore, in technical discussions, I use the word “Linux” to refer to the OS, as “this software is compatible with Linux”. But, when I want to stress out software freedom, given a large influence of the GNU project, I say “GNU/Linux”.

              So they use GNU/Linux to refer to any open system