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A Reason to Call it GNU/Linux
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<h1>A Reason to Call it GNU/Linux</h1>
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<div id="article-date">2024-07-31</div>
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<p class="tags">
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<a href="/index/gnu/linux.html" class="tag">gnu/linux</a>
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<a href="/index/linux.html" class="tag">linux</a>
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<a href="/index/free software.html" class="tag">free software</a>
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<a href="/index/android.html" class="tag">android</a>
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<a href="/index/opinion.html" class="tag">opinion</a>
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<p>Linux isn't very Unix-like by itself. Of course, it's a Unix-like <em class="emphasis-1">kernel</em>, and it
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does Unix-compatible file operations, process management, and system calls, but without the GNU
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suite or some other userland, it is just a kernel which doesn't have to be used as a Unix-like
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one.
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</p><p>Linux is Unix-like, but not all OSes which contain Linux take advantage of that.
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</p><p>Android basically uses Linux like a fancy bootloader. The only thing that runs there is toybox,
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which technically are Unix utilities, but the user can't interact with them, and a JVM.
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Everything the user does is done in Java.
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</p><p>In Android, if you only consider the actual platform that is used for making software, that
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platform is Java, not Unix. No matter how hard you try, Android isn't designed to run Unix packages
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natively. Of course it can, but that doesn't make it Unix-like, since the intended way to run
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applications is in Java.
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</p><p>Calling an OS by its kernel is wrong; the kernel doesn't determine the nature of the OS. We don't
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call Windows "NT" or MacOS "Darwin".
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</p><p>If you call GNU/Linux "Linux", why not call Android "Linux" as well? They're not compatible with
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each other, but technically the name Linux works for both according to your logic.
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</p><p>GNU/Linux means just that: GNU on the Linux kernel. There is a GNU kernel as well, the Hurd, but
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most commonly we substitute it with Linux. There used to be Debian GNU/kFreeBSD, which used the
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FreeBSD kernel, and there is GNU/Darwin, and GNU/Hurd, and so on. They didn't invent a name for
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that combination, but it still doesn't deserve to be named after its kernel. GNU/Linux is more
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compatible with GNU/Hurd or NetBSD (even without GNU) than with Android, Tizen, ChromeOS or
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whatever else happens to contain Linux and use it but don't take advantage of its Unix-like
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nature.
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</p><p>The fact that Android can run GNU/Linux in <code>chroot</code> doesn't mean anything; the core system is
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not GNU; but the kernel still knows how to run GNU software so it will run it. But that doesn't
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make Android GNU/Linux; it would be like saying your machine is Debian when it's actually OpenSUSE
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and you have a Debian chroot.
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</p><p>If someone made a system with the Windows NT kernel but not the Windows userland and GUI, would
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you still call that Windows? No; it <em class="emphasis-1">is</em> NT but that doesn't mean it's Windows, as it doesn't
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have what makes Windows run Windows software.
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</p><p>Obligatory copypasta:
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</p><blockquote><p>I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux,
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or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto
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itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU
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corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.
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</p><p>Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through
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a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called "Linux",
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and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.
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</p><p>There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use.
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Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other
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programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself;
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it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in
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combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or
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GNU/Linux. All the so-called "Linux" distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux!
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</p></blockquote>
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