[Fsf-india] DEBATE: Why Linux... why GNU/Linux

[Ramakrishnan M]

Raju Mathur wrote:

> You're welcome to attack anyone's beliefs but attacking the person
> when you're reacting to his beliefs is an extremely childish and

I had been part of the movement for the past 6 to 7 years; Had been 
hearing and reading AtulC's messages and his shows all these years till 
about 2 years back. I stand by my words no matter how childish it seem 
to you or others.

> immature thing to do.  Sorry, my respect for you just went down a few
> notches.

To be frank, I don't care!

> licenses wherever possible.  I also use commercial software when I
> can't find or use a viable free alternative.  You're welcome to have

and you believe in free software?

> your beliefs but please don't bother to tell me what I think and what
> philosophies I subscribe to and what I should call them.

The same arguments holds good for you too!

> 
>     >> So it should be GNU/Apache/Linux.
>     >> 
>     >> But what about.....
> 
>     RM> The author says as if he has found out some path breaking new
>     RM> chemical element!! These arguments had been chewed over many
>     RM> times in many many lists!! So it is not (g)new any more..:-)
> 
> And hence invalid?  Let's drop the Koran, the Gita and the Bible too
> while we're about it since they're not new either and hence
> meaningless by your implication.

Who stops you from calling it Linux/Linus/RajuLinux/KandalayaLinux or 
whatever? call it by whatever you can. No one stops you, not even RMS or 
FSF. What FSF *requests* you is to give them its share of credit and 
thereby let the people know how and why Free Software is important for 
the society.

When you just call it Linux, you just plainly ignore the social aspects 
of it and respect only the technical aspects of it. This is what Eric 
Raymond's community does.

 From your arguments I understand that you are part of this latter 
community which regards technical (and business) aspects as the primary 
goals for using Free Software and ignores the social and political aspects.

> You're welcome to think of Linux as the kernel; to me and millions of
> other people around the world Linux remains an operating system, with
> contributions from many sources including GNU.

You are free to think that way. No one stops you. Nobody can. But 
remember, by the same argument, you or your friend cannot stop me and 
other millions from thinking Linux as a kernel which is just a part (but 
an important part) of a greater thing called GNU.

> Cool, so do I.  And I thank RMS for one more thing: giving us a
> license which doesn't force nomenclature down the throats of people.

No license forces nomenclature (AFAIK). Not even MS EULA.

-- 
Ramakrishnan M    <rkrishnan@debian.org>
GPG keys : Try finger rkrishnan@db.debian.org
WWW : http://people.debian.org/~rkrishnan/