Re: RFC - GNU System Distribution

[John Williams]

On Thu, 2005-07-28 at 19:18 -0400, Alaska Subedi wrote:
> > 2.  Responders to his idea seem to believe that he is talking about
> > renaming either (1) the community that produces the software, or (2) the
> > "system".  
> 
> He seems to be talking about renaming the operating system because, to
> him, ``just GNU is confusing". 
OK.

> At the top of www.gnu.org, it says ``The GNU Operating System", 
True, but usage of GNU says otherwise.  In this very thread, someone
signed themself "A proud GNU user" or similar.  Then they had to recant:
they use GNU software, but not a/the GNU OS.  If someone highly literate
makes that "error" (according to you) what hope have we for the masses?


> > 6. All the above leads me to conclude that we should call it (what Barry
> > is talking about) the "GNU OS".  For those with American accents, this
> > of course expands to "(guh) new OS", or "New Operating System".  To me
> > GNU is a collection of software that embodies and implements
> > socio-political principles in addition to IT/CS principles.  We should
> > distinguish between "a bunch of software" and an operating system.

> You are incorrect. GNU is the name of an operating system; it is  at
> version 0.2. 
Thanks.  Is it available anywhere apart from Alfred's private FTP
site?  

Again, I must re-emphasise my point:  Barry (and I) are talking from the
point of view of the market for the software, not the producers of the
software.
-- 
John Williams
Research Analyst
Department of Marketing, Otago University
http://www.commerce.otago.ac.nz/marketing/staff/williamsj.html