Would Linux have achieved the same success if there had been no GNU?

I started using linux at 0.95, perhaps a bit before. Linus managed a few releases while I ferried floppies. I think I finally wiped my DOS partition and stopped dualbooting at 0.95c.

At that time there were alternatives around for every piece of gnu software that I can remember. Using byacc if rms hadn't, uh, released bison would not have been a great loss. But there was no alternative to Linus himself. He made a great difference.