this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2023
517 points (95.8% liked)

linuxmemes

21625 readers
338 users here now

Hint: :q!


Sister communities:


Community rules (click to expand)

1. Follow the site-wide rules

2. Be civil
  • Understand the difference between a joke and an insult.
  • Do not harrass or attack members of the community for any reason.
  • Leave remarks of "peasantry" to the PCMR community. If you dislike an OS/service/application, attack the thing you dislike, not the individuals who use it. Some people may not have a choice.
  • Bigotry will not be tolerated.
  • These rules are somewhat loosened when the subject is a public figure. Still, do not attack their person or incite harrassment.
  • 3. Post Linux-related content
  • Including Unix and BSD.
  • Non-Linux content is acceptable as long as it makes a reference to Linux. For example, the poorly made mockery of sudo in Windows.
  • No porn. Even if you watch it on a Linux machine.
  • 4. No recent reposts
  • Everybody uses Arch btw, can't quit Vim, and wants to interject for a moment. You can stop now.
  •  

    Please report posts and comments that break these rules!


    Important: never execute code or follow advice that you don't understand or can't verify, especially here. The word of the day is credibility. This is a meme community -- even the most helpful comments might just be shitposts that can damage your system. Be aware, be smart, don't fork-bomb your computer.

    founded 2 years ago
    MODERATORS
     
    you are viewing a single comment's thread
    view the rest of the comments
    [–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

    The shortest proper name is GNU.

    Inb4 Alpine, which is just called "Linux" internally.

    People use terrible words in CS and engineering in general. Doesn't mean we don't challenge them.

    [–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    I mean, GNU wants to be called an operating system but it can't talk to hardware.

    [–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

    Linux want to be called an operating system but it's a kernel.

    if only there was a way to combine these two...

    [–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

    And hardware can't talk to it. Has it ever occurred to you that there's more at stake here? That companies feel the need to lock away hardware in order to drive their profit line.

    At least GNU has something interesting to say about computer science. And for what it's worth, it's telling to know that you woild rather disparage GNU rather than the purposeful decisions made by executives and manufactuers to render both hardware and software undocumented and subjugating.

    But no! That's "unfixable" and we need to learn how to "deal with it." God forbid anyone makes a ruckus about it. Freedom for me but not for thee in this fast paced economy.

    You picked the status quo and are now complaining that people reject the status quo.

    [–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    I feel like you misunderstood. Operating system has many functions, one of the most important ones is talking to hardware. GNU cannot do that because that's the kernel's job. And the kernel is Linux. So they claim they're an operating system but can't do the most fundamental thing an operating system needs to do.

    [–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

    Well by that token Linux can't claim to be an OS either, since as your own comment mentions it only performs one function of an OS. It's important that it can talk to hardware but it's not an OS if it can't do anything else.

    [–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

    That's debatable, Linux (the kernel) does much more than communicate with hardware - it manages memory allocations, handles processes etc. GNU is a set of tools. While some tools are needed for the OS to even make sense (without tools it just sits there and does nothing), you could write a simple program used as the init process and nothing else than the program and Linux is needed. Which leads me to believe that the kernel is the OS.

    [–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

    What? GNU has a kernel, it's called Linux!

    [–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    no. gnu does have a kernel. But it's not linux. it's called gnu hurd. It is actually about a year older than linux. It isn't finished, and barely anyone uses it

    [–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

    GNU Hurd technically isn't the kernel. GNU Mach is.

    [–] [email protected] -3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

    GNU has both Hurd and Linux, very powerful indeed!

    [–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

    just, no. linux is simply not a gnu project. at all.

    If it were, we wouldn't be hearing about them wanting to call it gnu/linux because, in their own words, the os is "gnu with linux added"

    they'd just want to call it gnu.

    a very quick google search could have told you that

    [–] [email protected] -3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

    I don't use "google search" because it is nonfree software; linux was not started by the GNU project members. However, GNU does have a linux, it's called Linux-libre.

    GNU is the operating system in its entirety. GNU/Linux is the name used to best describe the exact operating system by giving principal credit to the Linux foundation. The GNU part is to highlight the fact that it is a libre operating system first and foremost.

    Perhaps I need to reread the essays again, but the main takeaway is that what's at stake here isn't credit but the political legacy of software freedom. Something that is made obvious by your last remark.

    [–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

    so that is linux-libre, not linux. linux still is not a gnu project.

    [–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

    Great observation! I'm glad you feel better now.

    [–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

    just curious.... which foss search engine do you use?

    [–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

    Searxng, Whoogle, Librex, Mullvad Leta (accessible with a Mullvad subscription)

    I also use brave search with many of its SaaS features turned off (AI summary, discussions) because Brave has a independent index thats useful to consult. The previous ones I mentioned are proxies to already established indices.

    [–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

    searxng is a meta search engine. It uses google search, among others. it is not a search engine itself.

    whoogle uses google. so it's not a search engine itself

    so does librex.

    and so does mullvad leta