08.31.20

Gemini version available ♊︎

Linux Would Never Have Been Mainstream Without GNU (We Could be Living in a BSD/UNIX World or Just More of Microsoft)

Posted in FSF, GNU/Linux, GPL, Kernel at 11:17 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: The licence crafted by Richard Stallman, as well as the GNU Project (lots of basic but invaluable utilities), helped make Linux what it is today; it’s good that the value of the licence is still being recognised, but bashing “where it came from” (so to speak) is disrespectful and opportunistic because Stallman says less obscene and controversial things than those insults from the founder of Linux

IS RMS an ‘extremist’?

No and it is not honourable to call him that.

Corporations want us to think he is. The Linux Foundation (little but a front of monopolistic corporations) pretends he does not exist and never did anything at all.

Hey, nothing extreme about individuals amassing $200 billion and still pursuing ways to avoid tax, right? Nothing ‘sick in the head’…

“Hey, nothing extreme about individuals amassing $200 billion and still pursuing ways to avoid tax, right? Nothing ‘sick in the head’…”Or a nontechnical Linux Foundation ‘chief’ taking (or rather raking in) so much money that the foundation he 'runs' operates at a loss.

At the moment we study thousands of old Debian E-mails from the 1990s (never published before); a lot of them come from Bruce Perens and so many of the messages acknowledge the FSF/GNU and RMS (a lot more than Linux and Linus Torvalds). “Open Source” didn’t exist at the time, but they spoke about Free software and several times about “Open Hardware”. Bruce lost his temper at one point and started cursing at everyone, albeit he then posted a mass apology to each person individually (no link as it would not be respectful to Bruce, whose latest initiative seems noteworthy and GPL-friendly).

“The system as a whole is a lot more worthy of the name “GNU” than “Linux”, which RMS said was “not an operation system” (causing an uproar among kernel developers at the time).”Reading these E-mails very carefully (I’ve spent many hours on that already), it seems clear that in 1996 and in 1997 GNU was a lot more important than Linux, which had already been around for half a decade. The revisionists were beginning to call the whole system just “Linux” (the mailing list shows many disagreements and dissent, both from Debian developers and from the FSF). A couple of years later there was OSI and “Open Source” — a term that Torvalds was fast to adopt because it helped bury the message of GNU and the FSF. As if they never existed and Torvalds was an ‘overnight God’ in his twenties.

Those who care about true history and not mainstream nonsense may want to read the pertinent E-mails, which we reproduced in the name of transparency (much belatedly, 23 years!). The system as a whole is a lot more worthy of the name “GNU” than “Linux”, which RMS said was “not an operation system” (causing an uproar among kernel developers at the time). It’s all there in the E-mails, with direct quotes from Debian leaders, the Slackware founder, and other high-profile people. We omit links intentionally as those might increase the perception of privacy invasion. We can produce the underlying evidence upon demand (we’ve taken notes of what’s where exactly in these E-mails).

Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
  • Reddit
  • email

Decor ᶃ Gemini Space

Below is a Web proxy. We recommend getting a Gemini client/browser.

Black/white/grey bullet button This post is also available in Gemini over at this address (requires a Gemini client/browser to open).

Decor ✐ Cross-references

Black/white/grey bullet button Pages that cross-reference this one, if any exist, are listed below or will be listed below over time.

Decor ▢ Respond and Discuss

Black/white/grey bullet button If you liked this post, consider subscribing to the RSS feed or join us now at the IRC channels.

DecorWhat Else is New


  1. All of Microsoft's Strategic Areas Have Layoffs This Year

    Microsoft’s supposedly strategic/future areas — gaming (trying to debt-load or offload debt to other companies), so-called ‘security’, “clown computing” (Azure), and “Hey Hi” (chaffbots etc.) — have all had layoffs this year; it’s clear that the company is having a serious existential crisis in spite of Trump’s and Biden’s bailouts (a wave of layoffs every month this year) and is just bluffing/stuffing the media with chaffbots cruft (puff pieces/misinformation) to keep shareholders distracted, asking them for patience and faking demand for the chaffbots (whilst laying off Bing staff, too)



  2. Links 28/03/2023: Pitivi 2023.03 is Out, Yet More Microsoft Layoffs (Now in Israel)

    Links for the day



  3. IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 27, 2023

    IRC logs for Monday, March 27, 2023



  4. Links 27/03/2023: GnuCash 5.0 and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on Phones

    Links for the day



  5. Links 27/03/2023: Twitter Source Code Published (But Not Intentionally)

    Links for the day



  6. IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 26, 2023

    IRC logs for Sunday, March 26, 2023



  7. Links 26/03/2023: OpenMandriva ROME 23.03, Texinfo 7.0.3, and KBibTeX 0.10.0

    Links for the day



  8. The World Wide Web is a Cesspit of Misinformation. Let's Do Something About It.

    It would be nice to make the Web a safer space for information and accuracy (actual facts) rather than a “Safe Space” for oversensitive companies and powerful people who cannot tolerate criticism; The Web needs to become more like today's Gemini, free of corporate influence and all other forms of covert nuisance



  9. Ryan Farmer: I’m Back After WordPress.com Deleted My Blog Over the Weekend

    Reprinted with permission from Ryan



  10. Civil Liberties Threatened Online and Offline

    A “society of sheeple” (a term used by Richard Stallman last week in his speech) is being “herded” online and offline; the video covers examples both online and offline, the latter being absence of ATMs or lack of properly-functioning ATMs (a growing problem lately, at least where I live)



  11. Techrights Develops Free Software to Separate the Wheat From the Chaff

    In order to separate the wheat from the chaff we’ve been working on simple, modular tools that process news and help curate the Web, basically removing the noise to squeeze out the signal



  12. Links 26/03/2023: MidnightBSD 3.0 and FreeBSD 13.2 RC4

    Links for the day



  13. IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 25, 2023

    IRC logs for Saturday, March 25, 2023



  14. Links 26/03/2023: More TikTok Bans

    Links for the day



  15. Links 25/03/2023: Gordon Moore (of Moore's Law) is Dead

    Links for the day



  16. Links 25/03/2023: Decade of Docker, Azure Broken Again

    Links for the day



  17. [Meme] Money Deducted in Payslips, But Nothing in Pensions

    Sirius ‘Open Source’ has stolen money from staff (in secret)



  18. IRC Proceedings: Friday, March 24, 2023

    IRC Proceedings: Friday, March 24, 2023



  19. The Corporate Media is Not Reporting Large-Scale Microsoft Layoffs (Too Busy With Chaffbot Puff Pieces), Leaks Required to Prove That More Layoffs Are Happening

    Just as we noted days ago, there are yet more Microsoft layoffs, but the mainstream media gets bribed to go “gaga” over vapourware and chaffbots (making chaff like “Bill Gates Says” pieces) instead of reporting actual news about Microsoft



  20. Sirius 'Open Source' Pensiongate: Time to Issue a Warrant of Arrest and Extradite the Fake 'Founder' of Sirius

    Sirius ‘Open Source’ is collapsing, but that does not mean that it can dodge accountability for crimes (e.g. money that it silently stole from its staff since at least 12 years ago)



  21. Links 24/03/2023: Microsoft's Fall on the Web and Many New Videos

    Links for the day



  22. IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 23, 2023

    IRC logs for Thursday, March 23, 2023



  23. Links 24/03/2023: Social Control Media Bans Advancing

    Links for the day



  24. Links 24/03/2023: GNU Grep 3.10 and Microsoft Accenture in a Freefall

    Links for the day



  25. Links 23/03/2023: RSS Guard 4.3.3 and OpenBSD Webzine

    Links for the day



  26. Experiencing 15 Years of LibrePlanet Celebration Firsthand as a Volunteer: 2023 - Charting the Course

    Article by Marcia K Wilbur



  27. [Meme] Grabinski the Opportunity

    Reports of European Patents being invalidated (judges do not tolerate fake patents) have become so common that a kangaroo court becomes a matter of urgency for the EPO‘s Benoît Battistelli and António Campinos; will the EU and the EPO’s Administrative Council go along with it, helping to cover up more than a decade of profound corruption?



  28. Union Syndicale Fédérale Cautions the EPO's Administrative Council About Initiating an Illegal Kangaroo Court System for Patents (UPC) While EPO Breaks Laws and Sponsors the Ukraine Invasion

    Union Syndicale Fédérale (USF) is once again speaking out in support of the staff union of Europe's second-largest institution, which lacks oversight and governance because of profound corruption and regulatory capture



  29. Investigation Underway: Sirius 'Open Source' Embezzled/Stole Money, Robbed Its Own Staff

    In light of new developments and some progress in an investigation of Sirius ‘Open Source’ (for fraud!) we take stock of where things stand



  30. [Meme] Sirius 'Open Source' Pensions: Schemes or Scams? Giving a Bad Name to Open Source...

    What Sirius ‘Open Source’ did to its staff is rightly treated as a criminal matter; we know who the perpetrators are


RSS 64x64RSS Feed: subscribe to the RSS feed for regular updates

Home iconSite Wiki: You can improve this site by helping the extension of the site's content

Home iconSite Home: Background about the site and some key features in the front page

Chat iconIRC Channel: Come and chat with us in real time

Recent Posts