Re: [Phpgroupware-developers] GNU/Linux on the phpGW bug tracker

[Chris Weiss]

then it seems I didn't understand, now I do.  And now I also see that some
poeple have way to much free time to invent just things to worry about.

I guess to be politicaly correct I would rather see the brand names, but if it
stops yet another flame war "GNU/Linux -whatever" it is.


Mathieu Roy (address@hidden) wrote:
>
> "Chris Weiss" <address@hidden> said:
>
> > I have a small problem with this change .... only Debain is actually
> > GNU/Linux, Mandrake is close, and the rest are certainly not GNU.  
> > "GNU/Linux"
> > and "Linux" are not exactly the same thing, adding GNU to it means that it's
> > not just GPL compatable but is strictly following the rules of the GNU,
> > correct?
>
> Linux is no way means that a distribution is GPL-compatible. Naming a
> distribution Linux would just means that the kernel linux is shipped
> with it.
>
> GNU/Linux does not means either that the distribution is
> GPL-compatible, neither does it means that the distribution follows
> GNU policy.
>
> GNU/Linux justs means that the distribution ship a system called GNU
> along with the kernel called Linux.
>
> There is no specific name that I know to describe a distribution
> wholy GPL-compatible. And I'm not sure that such distribution
> exists. Most of them ship Apache, for instance - and hopefully they
> do; but apache license is not GPL-compabible.
>
> And a project that strictly follows the GNU policy would be a GNU
> package.
>
>
> > I think the truely proper change would be to:
> > Debian GNU/Linux
> > Mandrake Linux
> > Redhat/Fedora
> > SuSE
> > Other Linux
> >
> > I understand the want to put linux in front as it groups them, but if that 
> > is
> > somehow against GNU policy (and I say wtf on that) then putting GNU/Linux on
> > non-GNU distros should also be against the GNU policy.
>
> What are non-GNU distros? All the distributions you mention are
> distributions of the GNU system along with the kernel linux.
>
> The only difference is the fact that the brand name of most of them
> just mention "Linux", not GNU. Which is a problem according to GNU
>
> <http://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html>
>
> But none of these brands starts with the word "linux" anyway.
>
> When I seen the page, it was something like:
>      Linux - Debian
>      Linux - Mandrake
> (not brand names).
>
> What would be more helpful for GNU, according to GNU itself, would be
> something like
>      GNU/Linux - Debian
>      GNU/Linux - Mandrake
> which still disregard the brand name.
>
> It is a very trivial change, however numerous members of the GNU
> project thinks that using that name helps it.
>
>
>
>
>
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