Guide 1

Well, I’m starting to write this series of Howtos, which, although
they don’t reveal great knowledge, clearly outline some basic points
that are very useful when getting into a system as multifaceted as
this one. I think I’m going to leave a copy of each one on my blog in case
someone wants to take a tour through them.

Let’s start then:

Why does my friend Linuxero get angry if I just say Linux and not GNU/Linux?

You’ve surely
come across comments in forums or people who directly tell you:
“the correct name is GNU/Linux, if you say just Linux then
you’re only referring to the kernel.”

To me personally, it
seems a bit ridiculous to be so demanding about names, but
these attitudes have their reasons that go back to the principles
of our beloved penguin.

The Story Behind Those Three Letters: GNU

It
is said that in the beginning there was man, and for a while he was
good. Then man created computers in the image and likeness of his
television. jejeje.

What is counted, however, is that at the
beginning of the computer age, the real business was not the software,
but the computer itself. The software was written by any user
with moderate knowledge, and computing professionals freely shared
their creations, which quickly spread around the world and
achieved that phenomenal technological development that has characterized
computing.

But then companies started to realize that
software was something from which they could gain profit, and they
began to create restrictive rules so that their employees would
not disclose their developments and so that the companies could sell them.

These
attitudes were spreading throughout all the companies and the
information stopped flowing. A systems expert named Richard Stallman,
who was used to sharing and receiving information freely,
was working in a company that had just purchased a new printer.

That
printer wasn’t working as the company needed, and, as a
good expert, Ricardito saw that the problem was in the printer’s
controller.

So, just as he had done on other occasions,
he picked up the phone and asked how much they would
charge him for providing the source code of the driver, since he
wanted to make a correction, which he would later send to the manufacturer
to consider adding to their future versions. But his surprise
was huge when they told him they couldn’t deliver the source code,
not even for sale.

After causing a telephonic revolt, gathering
great courage, and ending up with not a single line of code, Stallman
realized that around him companies were already protecting their source
code and simply thought: “This is no longer good.”

By discussing
with other experts, they decided to bring an end to all of
this, so they created the FSF (Free Software Foundation), the
GPL licenses, and began working on a new operating system
filled with completely free applications and drivers. This system would
be named GNU (GNU is Not Unix).

It was the year of 1992 and
the system was already very complete, with hundreds of applications, but the
most important thing was missing, the core.

Although the system
wasn’t completely finished, many wanted to use it already, but
without that core it was impossible to do so. Then came a
blessing in the form of a core from Linus Torvalds, who had
developed a core which he called Linux, which had been conceived
initially to be used in Minix systems.

However, it wasn’t
very difficult to integrate it into the GNU system, and, many years before
it was expected, the first usable version of GNU, called GNU/Linux, emerged.

It
should be noted that GNU/Linux is not the pinnacle of success, since
GNU and Linux are independent projects that support each other
only. The main goal of the FSF is to have its own kernel, of which
we already have prototypes under the name of Hurd.

Then GNU/Linux is a word that tells us that we are looking at the GNU operating system using the Linux kernel.

I will
conclude by mentioning that at some point the native core of GNU will be
completed and promises major improvements over the current Linux kernel, which,
since its creation, has also never stopped improving.

However,
enjoy GNU/Linux for now knowing that thousands of people
are working to improve it. Although the system
currently does impressive things, when the GNU kernel is
finished, you’ll see what a truly robust, stable,
intelligent, and capable system is.