Re: When can we expect a version 1.0 of the GNU Operating System?

[Ludovic Courtès]

Richard Stallman <address@hidden> skribis:

> GNU/Linux distros are variants of the GNU operating system.

Agreed.  In practice, though, people don’t refer to them this way.

> There are two issues with the idea of designating Guix as "the GNU system."
>
> 1. The GNU system, properly speaking, should contain the GNU Hurd.  In
> practical terms, I am not sure we want to make a distro with the GNU
> Hurd -- it may not be usable enough for that to be worth while.

Indeed.

> But at the same time I hesitate to officially discard the GNU Hurd by
> saying that Linux is the kernel of the GNU system.

Guix does not discard the GNU Hurd (there has been work to support it),
but considers GNU Linux-libre the most important target of these
two---let's not lie to ourselves.

Furthermore, Linux-libre is also a GNU package.

> 2. I don't want to downplay the existing free GNU/Linux distros than
> we now give them.  They are important.

I understand the concern.

Yet, I don't think we're downplaying them.  First, for 30 years, GNU has
claimed to be working on delivering an operating system, so it should
come as no surprise when the last building block is added to make it a
reality.  Second, Guix takes a different approach, and arguably occupies
a different place from Trisquel, gNewSense, etc.

I hope this clarifies things.

Thanks,
Ludo'.