Subject: Re: bug#25254: [minor] 'About' page says GuixSD is a "GNU/Linux distribution"

From: Mike Gerwitz <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 24 Dec 2016 14:49:31 -0500

On Fri, Dec 23, 2016 at 18:35:26 +0100, David Craven wrote:
> Besides on most systems there is a lot more software than just what is
> provided by GNU or Linux. If we want to be precise we can call it a
> mostly POSIX distribution.

It's a common misunderstanding that "GNU" refers to only to GNU
programs.  GNU is a complete operating system, which contains a lot of
non-GNU software.  GNU didn't develop its own replacements if other free
replacements were available.  This article does well to explain:

https://www.gnu.org/gnu/thegnuproject.html

   Developing a whole system is a very large project. To bring it into
   reach, I decided to adapt and use existing pieces of free software
   wherever that was possible. For example, I decided at the very
   beginning to use TeX as the principal text formatter; a few years
   later, I decided to use the X Window System rather than writing
   another window system for GNU.

   Because of these decisions, and others like them, the GNU system is not
   the same as the collection of all GNU software. The GNU system includes
   programs that are not GNU software, programs that were developed by
   other people and projects for their own purposes, but which we can use
   because they are free software.

-- 
Mike Gerwitz
Free Software Hacker+Activist | GNU Maintainer & Volunteer
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