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That she 'uses more software provided by KDE' is an unsubstantiated claim that people make way to fast. Is it possible to build KDE without GNU tools? If not, e

That she 'uses more software provided by KDE' is an unsubstantiated claim that people make way to fast. Is it possible to build KDE without GNU tools? If not, every use of KDE is an indirect use of GNU tools. While running, how many times are glibc and related foundational components called? The problem of GNU tools is their invisibility. But by that metric (what users see), your wife should call the system KDE, since the kernel is entirely invisible to her. Surely no one here suggest dropping Linux as the appropriate name for the system? But if so, doesn't GNU deserve to be mentioned as well, for making Linux actually usable by things such as KDE? The foundation is Linux + GNU tools. Neither can do without the other, but nothing can do anything without the two of them. That's as foundational as you can get in a GNU/Linux system, which is why people call it that.

maethorechannen 15y ago
Isn't the "you couldn't build it without GNU tools" argument somewhat silly, as no other OS out there includes the toolchain as part of the name? I doubt the folks over at Microsoft would seriously consider renaming Windows "Visual Studio/Windows" or "TFS/Windows", yet they would be hard pressed to build Windows without it. I'm also fairly sure Linux isn't the only OS out there that can be built with GNU tools (I thought Solaris was using it, at least during the brief period of time that they were open), yet it does seem to be the main target of the "GNU's contribution should be specially recognized" crowd - it's hard to see this as anything but sour grapes over Linux pretty much taking over the GPL licensed Unix-like kernel market away from Hurd. "Surely no one here suggest dropping Linux as the appropriate name for the system?" Linux based Android doesn't use Linux. Arguably the distro name is now the "primary" name (though this would still leave the FSF people feeling unloved). Thinking about it, I mostly say I use Ubuntu on the Desktop and Android on the phone and tablet and barely ever mention I run Linux nowadays.
cookiecaper 15y ago
I don't think much of KDE uses GNU tools under the covers. I know for instance that they've implemented their own copy functionality instead of just piping to cp or whatever. I don't know if they're dependent on any other GNU tools for runtime (they are probably dependent on GNU build tools), maybe we could ask a KDE developer. It'd be interesting to know.

maethorechannen 15y ago

Isn't the "you couldn't build it without GNU tools" argument somewhat silly, as no other OS out there includes the toolchain as part of the name? I doubt the folks over at Microsoft would seriously consider renaming Windows "Visual Studio/Windows" or "TFS/Windows", yet they would be hard pressed to build Windows without it. I'm also fairly sure Linux isn't the only OS out there that can be built with GNU tools (I thought Solaris was using it, at least during the brief period of time that they were open), yet it does seem to be the main target of the "GNU's contribution should be specially recognized" crowd - it's hard to see this as anything but sour grapes over Linux pretty much taking over the GPL licensed Unix-like kernel market away from Hurd. "Surely no one here suggest dropping Linux as the appropriate name for the system?" Linux based Android doesn't use Linux. Arguably the distro name is now the "primary" name (though this would still leave the FSF people feeling unloved). Thinking about it, I mostly say I use Ubuntu on the Desktop and Android on the phone and tablet and barely ever mention I run Linux nowadays.

cookiecaper 15y ago

I don't think much of KDE uses GNU tools under the covers. I know for instance that they've implemented their own copy functionality instead of just piping to cp or whatever. I don't know if they're dependent on any other GNU tools for runtime (they are probably dependent on GNU build tools), maybe we could ask a KDE developer. It'd be interesting to know.