Re: What to call Guix

[Rastus Vernon]

You are right about the former point. However, all the alternatives
that explicitly the word “system” are too long and not very attractive
(please tell me if I missed one). Furthermore, this name tells us some
things that I believe the others don't convey very well. For example,
it tells us explicitly that the system is a distribution of software.
Since it contains software that is not installed by default, that
might overlap (the GNU project by itself has a large number of
editors: Emacs, ed, nano and also the multiple editors of the GNOME
project) or be replaced by other software that is also part of the
distribution even if it is fundamental to the system (I'm talking
about GNU Hurd and Linux-libre), I'm not sure even calling it an
operating system is a good idea. It might be one, but it clearly
doesn't look like Microsoft Windows or Mac OS X, which are what people
are likely to think about when hearing or seeing the name if it
contains the word “system”.

Since the word “GNU” in the name means that the distribution is part
of the GNU project, what is implied is true. There are other
distributions that contain GNU software, even that are connected with
the GNU project (recommended by the Free Software Foundation), but
none is part of it. It is common to prepend the name of things that
are part of the GNU project with its name, so there again should be no
confusion here.

2015-01-15 21:10 GMT-05:00 Richard Stallman <address@hidden>:
> [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
> [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
> [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]
>
>   > > I would like to suggest the name “GNU Software Distribution”,
>
> That has two problems:
>
> * It doesn't say that this is a distribution of the GNU _system_.
>
> * It implies this is the one and only "software distribution"
> that is connected with GNU.
>
> --
> Dr Richard Stallman
> President, Free Software Foundation
> 51 Franklin St
> Boston MA 02110
> USA
> www.fsf.org  www.gnu.org
> Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software.
>   Use Ekiga or an ordinary phone call.
>