Respectfully, I don't think it needs to said again. This is English - meaning is determined by common usage, and for quite a while now the Linux has meant both

Respectfully, I don't think it needs to said again. This is English - meaning is determined by common usage, and for quite a while now the Linux has meant both the kernel and the OS to almost everyone (disambiguated by calling the former the "Linux kernel" when need be). Is it logical? Not really. But the horse is well out of the gate at this point.