[Savannah-hackers] Re: Help wanted (sysadmin work)

[Richard Stallman]

    I don't think the project looses a lot of credit because of the name.
    People are still using GNU licenses everywhere.

Most users never think about the GNU GPL.  They talk about the
operating system which is basically GNU, but they call it "Linux".

The GNU GPL is one small part of the work we did to develop the GNU
system.  We need to get credit for the system, not just the license.

    > These cases are not the same.  FreeBSD is basically a different
    > operating system.  It uses a few pieces of GNU, but overall it was
    > developed separately.  It would not be right to call it "GNU/FreeBSD".

    Which parts do you refer to?

As I understand it, FreeBSD uses just a few pieces of GNU software,
such as GCC and a few others.  However, if you want to check this
factually, how about if you make a list of GNU packages which are
standard parts of FreeBSD?

    but for historical 
    reasons, mentioned in FAQ, the OS is called Linux by everybody, so what 
    is the goal of renaming it? In other words, what does GNU project get, 
    besides personal satisfaction, if Linux is renamed to GNU/Linux, taking 
    into account, that everybody credits GNU's input in the OS?

If it were just a matter of personal satisfaction, it would not be
worth making a fuss about.

Most users have no idea of our role in developing this operating
system.  Most users believe it was developed by Linus Torvalds "just
for fun".  They think it comes from the open source movement.  See
http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html#everyoneknows.

What we gain by informing them where the system comes from is that
they will hear more about the GNU project';s philosophy, and will
pay more attention to it when they do hear about it.
See http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html#lost.