Ew, WTF is a GNU?
Posted: 2008-10-24
You know, i'm just now wondering whether Richard Stallman has ever regretted the decision to call GNU, GNU or even considered whether the decision has held back the Free Software movement at all. When people call GNU/Linux by the first or last part, they almost always choose the last, Linux. Is it any surprise? Linux sounds a hell of a lot cooler than GNU, not to mention it's easier to say (aside from the pronounciation confusion between lai-nux and li-nux). Gnu's Not Unix-- ha, clever, but not good marketing!
I'm sure RMS would love for people to use GNU when referring to GNU/Linux (or at least refer to them as a due) instead of just Linux as most people do, since it really is the more important part of the operating system, and it does make sense to logically, but think about it. Who would want to call anything GNU? It sounds like ew, or poo, but worse because you can't even pronounce it-- guh-new!
I really do wonder where the Free Software movement could be if GNU (or whatever it would be called) were emphasized instead of Linux. Does it really make a difference? At first you'll probably think, of course not-- it's just a name. Just a name? Last i checked, names were important. Sure, this might be small compared to other issues, but it has probably made a big difference without anyone noticing. That's why names matter.
It's probably too late for it to be worth even considering a new name for GNU, right? What if we just called it the G? Just a thought.
Unless something like that happens, it's a lost cause to fight for the use of GNU when referring to GNU/Linux because calling it Linux is easy and already recognized. Anybody who has heard of GNU has heard of Linux, but the opposite is often not true. As much as i agree with these so-called "GNUheads" philosophically and dream of the day (the far, far away day) GNU/Hurd finally becomes ready for production use (since it is conceptually superior to Linux), the battle for using the term GNU is dead for now. As much as i'd prefer not to, i'll most likely just be using the term "Linux" from now on. And this concludes my pointless rant :)