Comments on: Think of Linux as a Foundation, not an OS

By: Penguin Pete

Penguin Pete — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 02:24:58 +0000

Oh, bother. I already made this point along with a few others with Ubuntu is not Linux. Got nowhere. Nevertheless, I’m more than happy to see somebody else step forward and collect the whippings for a while!

By: Kenholmz

Kenholmz — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 21:39:10 +0000

The basis of this brief article makes very good sense. Linux and GNU may be the foundation of most distributions. It is rare that these two form an entire OS these days.

By: Someone with a clue

Someone with a clue — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 21:16:57 +0000

glibc, gcc, gas, Gnome, bash, X, ect…, ect…, ect…

How do these programs run on systems like BSD, Macintosh, and Solaris, without a Linux kernel, or the name Ubuntu on the CD label?

The name is GNU/Linux. Anything else is marketing nonsence.
GNU is the senior partner in this union.

By: chris rattis

chris rattis — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 20:55:52 +0000

@ Magic Banana, like the term Hacker, the term Linux has a different mind share now. Right or wrong, people equate all three distinctions to the one word Linux.

By: Magic Banana

Magic Banana — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 18:50:02 +0000

Ubuntu is a distibution. GNU/Linux is an operating system. Linux is a kernel. That is all.

Please, document yourself before posting: http://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html

By: chris rattis

chris rattis — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 17:03:32 +0000

Ten years later and the sky is falling again. I’ve been following linux since 1997 at the very least. Maybe 96, I installed my first box in 97. Back then these same arguments were made.

Redhat (who had a marketing department to back them) was the one that everyone was saying would be come what people associated with linux. The main choices back there were Slackware, Debian and Redhat. Then Madrake came along… And here we are 10 years later, still thinking that one distro is going to become synonymous with linux.

Hasn’t happened yet, probably never will.

By: Scott Ruecker

Scott Ruecker — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 10:39:58 +0000

I disagree with you on the name “Linux” holding Linux back. Its not the name that is holding it back. it is the mindset that says, “If it’s not Windows, it is different and therefor is not as good as Windows.

Of course, once most Windows users actually try something other than Windows, it is as if they are seeing their computer for the first time.

By: Richard Chapman

Richard Chapman — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 02:16:08 +0000

These people who are trying Ubuntu/Linux for the first time are coming from a monoculture environment. For them there was only one operating system for a long time. It was the best and the worst, at the same time. But what ever it was, it didn’t matter because there was nothing else, until now. “Suddenly” there’s this “new” operating system called Ubuntu. People try it and no matter what their experience is with it, good, bad, or really ugly, that’s their experience with Linux. Yes, Linux. I can sum it up in one sentence: “I couldn’t get Ubuntu to work with my wifi, Linux really sux!” And that’s the end of it, they go back to XP because Linux doesn’t work. I don’t mind Ubuntu getting most of the credit for what all the distributions have been working for, but I do mind when people fail to realize that there are other equally fine distributions out there that will work where Ubuntu fails.