/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>all these people saying "Linux"

The proper term is actually GNU.

The GNU project started developing the GNU OS in about '83. They made many central components. The kernel was missing. In about '92 Linux (a kernel) came around and once it was licensed under the GNU license people started using GNU with Linux. This means the OS is GNU, with Linux as the kernel.

If you think the kernel is more central or important than other parts of an OS, you're frankly mistaken. In terms of size, X.Org is huge as well, and it's very central too, yet you won't hear people call the operating system X.Org, or mention X.Org in its name. This is because it's only one component, although it does many things including talking to hardware. Similarly, the kernel is just one component that talks to hardware and does some other important things. But none of these are more important than the tasks of GNU components such as GCC (the compiler used to build everything), Glibc (the C library which virtually *all* software on the system links against), GRUB (the bootloader that loads the kernel in first place), GNU Bash (the login shell), GNU coreutils/findutils/diffutils/grep/sed/awk, and many other such tools which make the system POSIX compliant and are necessary for most software to run on the operating system at all.

And if you say "but those components can be replaced", then obviously X.Org and Linux can also be replaced. Wayland based systems are on the way, and there is already e.g. Debian GNU/kFreeBSD which is the Debian GNU system running on the FreeBSD project's kernel.

To summarize, in terms of project/culture GNU is the project and operating system; and in terms of technical significance and irreplaceability of components, GNU is definitely not any less important than Linux.

Therefore, it makes most sense to say GNU, not Linux. Or say GNU/Linux if you want to be pedantic.