- What means "GNU"?
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It a bit of a joke. It is supposed to be the first recursive name. GNU can be expanded like: GNU GNU´s not UNIX GNU´s not´s UNIX not UNIX GNU´s not´s UNIX not´s UNIX not UNIX ..... It was introduced by Richard Stallmann, who started Free Software Foundation and has made countless valuable contributions to the computer society (like emacs). Most of the linux operating system is based on GNU software (although Torvalds gets the honor for the kernel). The reason for creating GNU and GPL (GNU General Public Licence) was to fight Non-Free software (like UNIX), where the source is not available, and the user is bound by his licence. GPL does not prohibit any use of the source, as long as the final product is also released under GPL. There is also a lesser strict licence mostly used by GNU libraries, allowing developers to use GNU compilers (like gcc) to build non-free applications.
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- Thanks, moliate pal! - Your reply helps a lot. But I still have a question. I still do not understand the literal meaning of GNU (the meaning of letter "G" ). Is it just a joke? - Can you help? - Have a nice weekend, Maer
It does not have any literal meaning. It is a word,"gnu" as I already told you, which is an animal's name. Later on, they added this recursive expansion, partly in humor Nish Sonork ID 100.9786 voidmain
www.busterboy.org
Nish is a BIG fan of Goran Ivanisevic -
In essence, it means nothing. Unix people have a wierd sense of humor. There is another famous Unix program called Yacc (which I think stands for "Yet Another Compiler Compiler"), and another named Bison (who knows what that means? Anyway, these are both ruminants (ie cattle), so whatever joker came up with the Gnu project decided to name it after yet another herdbeast. (Why they didn't name it BULL is beyond me.) Later, some clown decided to get funny and tag a meaningless recursive definition to the name: Gnu's Not Unix. Yawn. I hate to think what these nuts name their kids.
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- Thanks, moliate pal! - Your reply helps a lot. But I still have a question. I still do not understand the literal meaning of GNU (the meaning of letter "G" ). Is it just a joke? - Can you help? - Have a nice weekend, Maer
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It does not have any literal meaning. It is a word,"gnu" as I already told you, which is an animal's name. Later on, they added this recursive expansion, partly in humor Nish Sonork ID 100.9786 voidmain
www.busterboy.org
Nish is a BIG fan of Goran Ivanisevic -
In essence, it means nothing. Unix people have a wierd sense of humor. There is another famous Unix program called Yacc (which I think stands for "Yet Another Compiler Compiler"), and another named Bison (who knows what that means? Anyway, these are both ruminants (ie cattle), so whatever joker came up with the Gnu project decided to name it after yet another herdbeast. (Why they didn't name it BULL is beyond me.) Later, some clown decided to get funny and tag a meaningless recursive definition to the name: Gnu's Not Unix. Yawn. I hate to think what these nuts name their kids.
- Thanks, Jim pal! - Yep, I think you are right and smart. You must be a fan of UNIX. - Well, another question arises in my head. I do not know why they do not use the UNIX kernel and write a new version of their own. Why not just implement the binaries of UNIX and use the UNIX kernel? It is a nice kernel, isn't it? - Can you help? - Have a nice weekend, Maer
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Nish is right. The central part here is "Not UNIX", which would give an recursive acronyme like '_NU'. One of the few english words that would fit that template would be 'gnu'...
- Thanks, moliate pal! - Yep, I think you are right and smart. You must be a fan of UNIX. - Well, another question arises in my head. I do not know why they do not use the UNIX kernel and write a new version of their own. Why not just implement the binaries of UNIX and use the UNIX kernel? It is a nice kernel, isn't it? - Can you help? - Have a nice weekend, Maer
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- Thanks, moliate pal! - Yep, I think you are right and smart. You must be a fan of UNIX. - Well, another question arises in my head. I do not know why they do not use the UNIX kernel and write a new version of their own. Why not just implement the binaries of UNIX and use the UNIX kernel? It is a nice kernel, isn't it? - Can you help? - Have a nice weekend, Maer
The keyword is "Free software" (guess that is two words). In Swedish there are two different words: "gratis", meaning "free of cost" and "fri", meaning free in the liberty sense. GNU software use both definitions. That means you can do all the things below: (From the GNU hompage)
- The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
- The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
- The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
- The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits. (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
There is a whole family of UNIX-like OS:es and kernels, like BSD, freeBSD, Linux, AIX, XENIX, HP-UX, SCO, Solaris.... Most of them are not "Free" in any definition and does not make the source available. GNU did not write any kernel, but provide a lot of functionality that make up the OS, like the most common shellcommands (Fileutils). Stallman himself is an idealist and don't use any "Non-Free" software. > - Yep, I think you are right and smart. You must be a fan of UNIX. Thanks :-D. I am a Windows programmer, like most of us in here, but I have done some occational Linux programming (and some on "non-free" Solaris).
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The keyword is "Free software" (guess that is two words). In Swedish there are two different words: "gratis", meaning "free of cost" and "fri", meaning free in the liberty sense. GNU software use both definitions. That means you can do all the things below: (From the GNU hompage)
- The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
- The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
- The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
- The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits. (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
There is a whole family of UNIX-like OS:es and kernels, like BSD, freeBSD, Linux, AIX, XENIX, HP-UX, SCO, Solaris.... Most of them are not "Free" in any definition and does not make the source available. GNU did not write any kernel, but provide a lot of functionality that make up the OS, like the most common shellcommands (Fileutils). Stallman himself is an idealist and don't use any "Non-Free" software. > - Yep, I think you are right and smart. You must be a fan of UNIX. Thanks :-D. I am a Windows programmer, like most of us in here, but I have done some occational Linux programming (and some on "non-free" Solaris).
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- Thanks pal! - Your reply helps a lot. I still have a question. - What means "es" in your reply? (" ... es and kernels ... " ) - Can you help me, a newbie? - Have a nice weekend, Maer
