> Linux is an operating system, like macOS or Windows.
Nup, it's just a kernel.
Nup, it's just a kernel.
Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called Linux, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.
There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called Linux distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux!
s/All/Most
Alpine Linux uses musl libc and busybox, for example.
[0] https://xkcd.com/1053/ (Ten Thousand)
Most people use Linux to mean one of many full operating system distributions, and then refer to the kernel as ‘the Linux kernel’. Gnu gets referred to in relation to the many tools. That’s just how the language has worked out.
The comment is certainly true in terms of who contributed various components, although many distributions do increasingly contain critical components that have nothing to do with GNU.
I knew it was Stallman’s bitterness. I just didn’t know it was a copy/paste!