Re: [seul-sci] [Fwd: Credit where credit is due]

["Joseph Sollenberger" <n3mkh@netrax.net>]

I always liked the Yggdrasil Computing, Inc. LGX logo.  Linux, GNU and
X-windows.  An even more precise statement :)


----- Original Message -----
From: Pete St. Onge <pete@seul.org>
To: <seul-sci@seul.org>
Sent: Monday, January 08, 2001 8:01 PM
Subject: [seul-sci] [Fwd: Credit where credit is due]


> interesting. any ideas?
>
> -- pete
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Credit where credit is due
> Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 14:06:06 -0500 (EST)
> From: "Robert J. Chassell" <bob@rattlesnake.com>
> Reply-To: bob@rattlesnake.com
> To: pete@seul.org
> CC: bob@rattlesnake.com
>
> One of the customs of science is to cite previous work accurately.
> This tradition has two consequences:
>
>   1. The reader can check the previous work and thereby learn more and
>      gain more evidence regarding the current work.
>
>   2. Previous workers gain a reputation, which rewards them and helps
>      others make judgements about them.
>
> I wish you would follow the scientific tradition in your otherwise
> excellent reports.
>
> Specifically, you refer to
>
>     Linux in Science
>
> rather than
>
>     GNU/Linux in Science
>
>
> The idea of freedom for people using software was invented in 1984 and
> instituted in the GNU Project.
>
> By 1991, people in the GNU Project had written most of an operating
> system that gave people the freedom to copy, study, modify, and
> redistribute the code.  Moreover, and most importantly, the GNU
> Project invented a legal tool that protected developers and others
> from theives.
>
> In 1991, the major missing piece to a complete free operating system
> (from the point of view of developers), was the lack of a kernel.
> Some people were working on one called the Hurd.  Because of
> difficulties, it was delayed.
>
> Fortunately, Linus Torvalds created a different GNU kernel, which he
> distributed under the GNU license.  This kernel was not as good as the
> Hurd was supposed to be, but it worked and was therefore adopted.  For
> its useful operation, the kernel required the other parts of an
> operating system: vastly more code than in the kernel.
>
> However, rather than your calling the system `GNU with a Linux
> kernel', or more shortly, `GNU/Linux', you are calling it simply
> `Linux'.
> ...............