Is Linux Unix??

[Geert Janssens]

Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:
> Ben Ricker wrote:
> 
>>I would add one thing to this issue: Linux, on one level of comparison, 
>>is most definitely LIKE Unix, if not IS Unix.
> 
> One should not confuse a distribution e.g. Yellow Dog and a kernel e.g. Linux.
> Most of the software included in Yellow Dog is not Linux, it's freeware,
> must released under the GNU Public License.
> 
On the risk of being accused of nitpicking, free software (this means 
software released under the GPL) is not the same as freeware.
The English term free is very confusing to explain this. It can refer to 
  something you don't have to pay for, or refer to the freedom to do 
something. In open source circles you would often see "as in beer" or 
"as in speech" added to the word free to emphasize which meaning is 
intended.

By the way, many languages have two different words for the two 
meanings, like "gratuit" vs "libre" in french, or "gratis" vs "vrij" in 
dutch. (Being a Belgian guy, those are the two main languages here :-)

So back to the nitpicking: freeware is "gratis" software, you don't have 
to pay for it. But unlike free software (GPL licenced), the original 
author has total control over what you are and aren't allowed to do with 
the software. Freeware could be "gratis" but you might not have access 
to the code, so you can't change it to your heart's desire. The licence 
could even contain such absurd statements (although I never saw such 
one) as "if your hear is red, you can't run this program on your 
computer". More practically, although it is free, you may not have the 
right to provide a copy to your friend.

Free "vrije" software (GPL) on the other hand explicitly grants the user 
the total freedom to do whatever he/she wishes with the software (except 
changing the licence). This means you can pass copies to a friend, 
change the code, and even charge money for it ! Whether this would be 
commercially viable, is an ongoing debate. Some companies apparently 
manage to do so, like but not limited to several distributors (YDL, Red 
Hat, Suse,...).




On a second note, to help you better understand open source and free 
software, and again at the risk of nitpicking: the YDL distribution is 
not Linux either, nor is Red Hat, or Suse et al. Richard M. Stallman, 
the founder of the Free Software Foundation (who invented the GPL) is 
often most frustrated about this misinformation. As a courtesy to him 
and his good work, I'll try to clarify this matter here.

Each of the forementioned distributions is a complete computing 
environment, consisting of a large collection of free software.

Such a computing environment consists of an operating system (similar to 
Mac OS X, or Windows) together with its utilities and applications that 
run on top of this operating system (like word processors, text editors, 
spreadsheets and so on).

The second part is quite clear. What the distributions is concerned, 
they come from various free software/open source projects. It is the 
distributors merit to collect these different applications, and compile 
them in a consistent set that runs on the first part, the operating system.

I deliberatly said "operating system" and not Linux, because even the 
operating system is not Linux. The operating system is the "Gnu 
operating system", the brainchild of the Free Software Foundation. It 
was the FSF that decided in the eighties to create a free (vrij) 
operating system as opposed to the then common commercial UNIX 
implementations with all their licence restrictions. They developped the 
core libraries, compilers and all utilities necessary for this. (They 
even created a chess program: GnuChess). The final piece they needed was 
a kernel, the corner stone for the whole system.

For this kernel the FSF had a project going called the "Hurd", which is 
by the way still in active development. But at more or less the same 
time, Linus Torvalds was independently developing a kernel for a project 
of its own. This kernel happened to fit exactly in the Gnu computer 
environment. From there, it became quickly quite popular. So popular 
even, that its name quickly became mainstream.

If you ask people if they heard of Gnu (which stands for Gnu's Not Unix, 
by the way), you will likely get a negative response, while everyone by 
now has heard of Linux.

Personally, I don't mind the whole system is called Linux although I 
agree that this confuses things a bit. The Free Software Foundation, 
their Gnu project and the developers behind it do have my respect and 
gratitude for their vision of freedom for the computing world, and their 
courage to implement it in the form of a complete operating system 
including compilers, utilities and games that we use and talk about 
right now.

Did I mention they have a website ? http://www.gnu.org


So much for the "crusade".

Cheers,

Geert