Are the FSF helpful?

["Ciaran O'Riordan" <ciaran@member.fsf.org>]

Hello all.

I am a Free Software developer.  My platform of choice is GNU but I
try to write software that works on any unix-like Free OS.  I recently
decided to install OpenBSD so that I could check for portability
issues.  While reading the OpenBSD docs I was surprised that GNU/Linux
is referred to as "Linux".

The OpenBSD community are quite a technical group, it is obviously
known that Linux is a kernel, not an OS.  So what reason is there for
choosing "Linux" over "GNU" or "GNU/Linux".

The name "Linux" is used constantly by proprietary software companies.
It allows them to ignore the issues of Freedom and openness thus
encouraging people to run (and trust) the binary software packages
they distribute.

Users and developers in the general Free Software community can make
their own decisions as to what name they want to use.  Why not band
together to help eachother?

The GNU project has created many good pieces of software that are used
by OpenBSD people. (GCC, GDB, binutils, wget, textutils, gnupg,
gnuchess, fileutils, emacs, bash, automake, autoconf, etc.)  The
campaigning the Free Software Foundations does against anti-programmer
laws also aids the Free Software community as a whole.

Calling the system "GNU" or "GNU/Linux" is not only more accurate but
also raises awareness about the GNU project.  This helps attract
developers which benefits all Free Software OSs.

This is not an all-or-nothing issue, it's the-more-the-merrier.  Even
if a quarter (or even one) of the OpenBSD community used the term
"GNU" or "GNU/Linux", it would be helpful.  OpenBSD developers owe the
FSF nothing, that's what sharing is about, many GNU/Linux users use
openssh etc. (thanks).

Any thoughts?


Ciaran O'Riordan
(I am speaking for myself alone and present no FSF opinion/thoughts)