Call Me GNU: The GNU/Linux Naming Debate, Revisited

[Taliesen]

GNU is an operating system.

Linux is a part of an operating system known as the kernel.

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Call Me GNU: The GNU/Linux Naming Debate, Revisited

(Author's note: The following is part of a semi-regular series on Free Software. The importance of which to White Rights Advocacy can not be overstated. To learn why Free Software is so important to our struggle, read the first article in the series: "What Is Free Software?")

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This article is offered as a meditation on linguistics and semantics; in other words, how we use the English language. It's argument is simple: the name of the operating system is "GNU", and the name of the kernel is "Linux", thus "Linux" can't be the name of the operating system, because it is a separate entity (even as it acts as crucial component of the operating system, GNU). It isn't meant to start a fanboi argument. It isn't denigrating Linux in any way. Linux is a fine kernel, admired for both its technical excellence and it's impact on society by acting as a kind of "proof-of-concept" for free software.

Many call the world's most popular free software-based operating system, "Linux," after the kernel it's built-upon, some call it, "GNU/Linux," but it should simply be called, "GNU."

The once common flame wars over what to call the world's most popular free OS have been reduced to dying embers, with most deciding to call the system, "Linux." This choice was shepherded along, in part, because of a desire on the part of corporations to distance the software they produce/support from the term "free" -- as in Free Software. (See What Is Free Software? for background on that debate.)

Richard Stallman, the founder of the GNU Project and the Free Software Foundation, has long argued for the term "GNU/Linux", and many of his adherents use that label. Both groups are wrong. If "Linux" is used in the name at all it should be "Linux GNU", with "Linux" as a modifier of the word "GNU". In this case meaning something like "the GNU operating system that features the kernel, Linux".

The confusion comes from the legacy use of the term "operating system." Most texts on the subject have historically defined both the word "kernel" and the term "operating system" the same -- basically some version of: "the software that allows applications to communicate with hardware." For a while that definition served for both terms, but over time, due to sign slippage, the term "operating system" has evolved to mean something more like "operating environment," a larger more inclusive category that encompasses the kernel, user interfaces (shells and GUIs), software building/installation tools, as well as many other basic tools and utilities. In

this 1982 video produced by Bell Labs

this 1982 video produced by Bell Labs

, the narrator defines an operating system as having three parts:

1. A Kernel
2. A Shell
3. Utility Programs

Ken Thompson said that when he first started coding the Unix operating system, he wrote four initial programs: the kernel, the shell, a text editor, and a compiler, establishing that an operating system is constituted of at least four programs. Today, in order to build a minimal working GNU operating system, featuring Linux as the kernel, that is able to be extended, you would need more than a dozen packages. It might look something like this:

1. Linux
2. e2fsprogs
3. Binutils
4. GCC
5. Glibc
6. Make
7. Bash
8. Ncurses
9. Readline
10. Coreutils
11. Nano
12. Wget
13. Gzip
14. Tar

As you can see, an operating system is much more than just a kernel.

Referring to an operating system by the name of its kernel is very rare, in fact it is much more common to do the opposite. Microsoft Windows NT, Unix, and the BSDs all name their kernels after the operating system (e.g. the FreeBSD kernel). Further, some operating systems have completely different names for their operating systems and kernels. Apple calls its operating system "Mac OS X" and its kernel "XNU" (which, in turn, is a modified version of the Mach microkernel--which is the same microkernel used by Hurd, the GNU Project's kernel). Closer to home, for those of us who use Linux-based operating systems, Android OS is also built on top of the kernel, Linux, but no one insists on calling it, "Linux."

Be smart, be bold, be right: call it "GNU".

(Editor's note: This entry was originally published in fall of 2013. It was revised, expanded, and updated in January 2022.)
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[Taliesen]

Call Me GNU: The GNU/Linux Naming Debate, Revisited

Many call the world's most popular free software-based operating system, "Linux," after the kernel it's built-upon, some call it, "GNU/Linux," but it should simply be called, "GNU."

The once common flame wars over what to call the world's most popular free OS have been reduced to dying embers, with most deciding to call the system, "Linux." This choice was shepherded along, in part, because of a desire on the part of corporations to . . .