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

[Ludovic Courtès]

Brandon Invergo <address@hidden> skribis:

> This goes back to my point that the problem with calling something "The
> GNU System" is that it implies that there is a single, specific set of
> software that defines the system.  The kernel issue then comes crashing
> to the forefront: if the GNU project has two kernels, and obviously only
> one can be in use at any time, which kernel does "The GNU System" use?

Like Debian: the user chooses to install the Hurd-based or the
Linux-based system.  Similarly, they choose among the 10 GNU editors,
they choose Guile among the 5 GNU Schemes, etc.  ;-) The kernel is
really a non-issue.

> This is why I argued that we should instead talk about having a
> "reference GNU/Linux distribution" or something to that extent.
> "Official GNU System" might have been imaginable decades ago but things
> have turned out differently: we have many thousands of good free
> software packages that can interchangeably comprise a GNU-like system
> (all for the better, in my opinion).  To declare some specific subset of
> them to be the "official" combination is not productive and dismisses a
> lot of perfectly fine free software.

I don’t think it’s about dismissing non-GNU software: the maintainers of
non-GNU software are free to offer it to GNU, after all.

I wonder how calling our work “the GNU system” could hurt other distros.
None of the existing distros claims to be providing “the” or even “a”
GNU system, right?  None of them has any commitment to providing tight
GNU integration, or to follow GNU policies in general, AFAIK (they are
committed to the FSDG, but that has a much broader scope.)

Because it was intended from the beginning to be a GNU distribution, our
work distinguishes itself in several ways from existing distros.

Asserting that has nothing to do with dismissing the good work that
people have done in other projects.  It’s about affirming what the GNU
project stands for.  It’s about recreating tighter links among GNU
packages and hackers.  It’s about contributing to a stronger GNU project.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Ludo’.