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Re: RFC - GNU System Distribution
From: |
Barry deFreese |
Subject: |
Re: RFC - GNU System Distribution |
Date: |
Thu, 28 Jul 2005 17:54:51 -0400 |
User-agent: |
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20050513 Debian/1.7.8-1 |
John Williams wrote:
> On Thu, 2005-07-28 at 16:51 +0200, Alfred M. Szmidt wrote:
>
>>Please, this is just unproductive, the GNU system has was named by
>>Richard in 1984, lets keep it like that.
>
>
> I would like to move this debate along, as I don't believe that it is
> unproductive.
>
> I appreciate the points being made on all sides of this debate. Let me
> try to summarise. If I misrepresent your opinion or position, please
> send corrections to the list.
>
> 1. Barry wants to name an entity in the same class as (what is known in
> the popular press as) a Linux distribution (or a BSD distribution, or
> whatever)
>
> 2. Responders to his idea seem to believe that he is talking about
> renaming either (1) the community that produces the software, or (2) the
> "system".
>
> 3. Barry is talking about things from a consumer point of view, others
> are taking a producer's point of view. Barry is saying "let's talk to
> people in a language they understand" and others are saying "no, let's
> teach them new words and concepts".
>
> 4. "System" is highly ambiguous. When we say "GNU is not Unix" this
> begs the question "what is Unix"? It is certainly not a kernel, a
> product you can buy, or an ISO you can download. It is a computing
> platform (software) in the broadest sense of the word, perhaps most
> usefully defined as a set of interfaces (POSIX). All this is geek-speak
> of the highest order.
>
> 5. People able to differentiate between Windows, Mac OS, GNU/Linux etc.
> understand the term "Operating System". Nowadays the distinction
> between what we think of as an OS and the applications bundled with it
> are becoming blurred. But people understand the difference between OSs
> in an operative sense like this: A: "Hey, I've found this really neat
> software that fulfils my innermost desires!" B: "Cool! Does it run on
> Macs?".
>
> 6. All the above leads me to conclude that we should call it (what Barry
> is talking about) the "GNU OS". For those with American accents, this
> of course expands to "(guh) new OS", or "New Operating System". To me
> GNU is a collection of software that embodies and implements
> socio-political principles in addition to IT/CS principles. We should
> distinguish between "a bunch of software" and an operating system.
>
> 7. We should not publicise the existence of the GNU OS until it is in a
> state where one can download a bootable CD or DVD image, pop it in the
> drive of a computer with an unformatted hard drive, install it, and end
> up with a GUI login to (probably) a GNOME session. The GNOME session
> should provide ethernet access to the Internet and run the most useful
> free software for end users: Email, WWW browser, IM client and Office
> suite. (OpenOffice? GNOME Office?).
>
> OK, that last point was just a wish. But how far away are we from
> achieving this? And I presume in all this we are talking about the
> kernel being the Hurd, not Linux?
>
> I am sorry if I am being naive and stupid by butting in here. I have
> been waiting 20 years for the release of what I think of as the GNU OS.
> I want it to happen, and I am willing to help, but I am a very poor
> programmer. Is there room for a non-programmer to help in this project?
>
> thanks for listening,
>
> John
>
John,
This is beautiful. Thank you for putting in to words what I was
apparently not able to get across.
Oh and from one non-programmer to another, you would certainly be
welcome in my little corner of the project :-)
Thanks again,
Barry deFreese (aka bddebian)
- Re: RFC - GNU System Distribution, (continued)
- Re: RFC - GNU System Distribution, Barry deFreese, 2005/07/28
- Re: RFC - GNU System Distribution, Alfred M\. Szmidt, 2005/07/28
- Re: RFC - GNU System Distribution, John Williams, 2005/07/28
- Re: RFC - GNU System Distribution, Alaska Subedi, 2005/07/28
- Re: RFC - GNU System Distribution, John Williams, 2005/07/28
- Re: RFC - GNU System Distribution, Alfred M\. Szmidt, 2005/07/29
- Re: RFC - GNU System Distribution,
Barry deFreese <=
- Re: RFC - GNU System Distribution, Alfred M\. Szmidt, 2005/07/29
- Re: RFC - GNU System Distribution, Anders Breindahl, 2005/07/29
- Re: RFC - GNU System Distribution, Jose E. Marchesi, 2005/07/28
- Re: RFC - GNU System Distribution, Alfred M\. Szmidt, 2005/07/28
- Re: RFC - GNU System Distribution, Jose E. Marchesi, 2005/07/28
- Re: RFC - GNU System Distribution, Alfred M\. Szmidt, 2005/07/28
- Re: RFC - GNU System Distribution, Richard M. Stallman, 2005/07/29
- Re: RFC - GNU System Distribution, Gianluca Guida, 2005/07/29
- Re: RFC - GNU System Distribution, Richard M. Stallman, 2005/07/29
- Re: RFC - GNU System Distribution, Barry deFreese, 2005/07/29