Return-Path: <linux-kernel-owner+willy=40w.ods.org@vger.kernel.org>
Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand
	id <S266308AbTABSaX>; Thu, 2 Jan 2003 13:30:23 -0500
Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org
	id <S266316AbTABSaX>; Thu, 2 Jan 2003 13:30:23 -0500
Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([199.232.76.164]:51841 "EHLO
	fencepost.gnu.org") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP
	id <S266308AbTABSaT>; Thu, 2 Jan 2003 13:30:19 -0500
From: Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
To: efault@gmx.de
CC: Hell.Surfers@cwctv.net, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
In-reply-to: <5.1.1.6.2.20030101084621.00cdf9f8@pop.gmx.net> (message from
	Mike Galbraith on Wed, 01 Jan 2003 10:36:50 +0100)
Subject: Re: Nvidia and its choice to read the GPL "differently"
Reply-to: rms@gnu.org
References: <5.1.1.6.2.20030101084621.00cdf9f8@pop.gmx.net>
Message-Id: <E18UAEy-00046n-00@fencepost.gnu.org>
Date: Thu, 02 Jan 2003 13:38:48 -0500
Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org
X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Content-Length: 1393
Lines: 30

    Yup.  It's high time they realized that Linux exists today solely because a 
    lazy Finnish student conned a bunch of folks into doing his homework.
]

That's a colorful way of saying that Linux was developed by Linus
Torvalds.  If by "Linux" you mean the kernel whose maintenance is
discussed on this list, that is true.

You're surely aware that when the media, companies, and users say
"Linux", they usually do not mean the kernel.  They usually have in
mind an entire operating system in which Linux is used.  This entire
system wasn't developed by Linus Torvalds--it is basically GNU, which
was started in 1984.  The system exists because idealistic programmers
had a vision of a different kind of society and had the determination
to make it happen.

If you want to avoid predictably steering readers into confusion, each
time you say (in one way or another) that Linux was developed by Linus
Torvalds, you need to explain that Linux is one component of the
GNU+Linux system which is what users typically run.

For further discussion, and for responses to all the usual
counterarguments, see http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html.


-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/