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+1. Linux and the GNU System {#linux-and-the-gnu-system .chapter}
+===========================
+
+Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU
+system[(1)](#FOOT1) 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.[(2)](#FOOT2)
+
+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.
+
+Many users do not understand the difference between the kernel, which is
+Linux, and the whole system, which they also call “Linux.” The ambiguous
+use of the name doesn’t help people understand. These users often think
+that Linus Torvalds developed the whole operating system in 1991, with a
+bit of help.
+
+Programmers generally know that Linux is a kernel. But since they have
+generally heard the whole system called “Linux” as well, they often
+envisage a history that would justify naming the whole system after the
+kernel. For example, many believe that once Linus Torvalds finished
+writing Linux, the kernel, its users looked around for other free
+software to go with it, and found that (for no particular reason) most
+everything necessary to make a Unix-like system was already available.
+
+What they found was no accident—it was the not-quite-complete GNU
+system. The available free software[(3)](#FOOT3) added up to a complete
+system because the GNU Project had been working since 1984 to make one.
+In the GNU Manifesto[(4)](#FOOT4) we set forth the goal of developing a
+free Unix-like system, called GNU. The Initial Announcement[(5)](#FOOT5)
+of the GNU Project also outlines some of the original plans for the GNU
+system. By the time Linux was started, GNU was almost finished.
+
+@firstcopyingnotice{{@footnoterule Copyright © 1997–2002, 2007, 2014
+Richard Stallman\
+ {This essay was originally published on <http://gnu.org>, in 1997. This
+version is part of @fsfsthreecite}
+
+Most free software projects have the goal of developing a particular
+program for a particular job. For example, Linus Torvalds set out to
+write a Unix-like kernel (Linux); Donald Knuth set out to write a text
+formatter (TeX); Bob Scheifler set out to develop a window system (the X
+Window System). It’s natural to measure the contribution of this kind of
+project by specific programs that came from the project.
+
+If we tried to measure the GNU Project’s contribution in this way, what
+would we conclude? One CD-ROM vendor found that in their “Linux
+distribution,” GNU software[(6)](#FOOT6) was the largest single
+contingent, around 28 percent of the total source code, and this
+included some of the essential major components without which there
+could be no system. Linux itself was about 3 percent. (The proportions
+in 2008 are similar: in the “main” repository of gNewSense, Linux is 1.5
+percent and GNU packages are 15 percent.) So if you were going to pick a
+name for the system based on who wrote the programs in the system, the
+most appropriate single choice would be “GNU.”
+
+But that is not the deepest way to consider the question. The GNU
+Project was not, is not, a project to develop specific software
+packages. It was not a project to develop a C compiler,[(7)](#FOOT7)
+although we did that. It was not a project to develop a text editor,
+although we developed one. The GNU Project set out to develop *a
+complete free Unix-like system:* GNU.
+
+Many people have made major contributions to the free software in the
+system, and they all deserve credit for their software. But the reason
+it is *an integrated system*—and not just a collection of useful
+programs—is because the GNU Project set out to make it one. We made a
+list of the programs needed to make a *complete* free system, and we
+systematically found, wrote, or found people to write everything on the
+list. We wrote essential but unexciting[(8)](#FOOT8) components because
+you can’t have a system without them. Some of our system components, the
+programming tools, became popular on their own among programmers, but we
+wrote many components that are not tools.[(9)](#FOOT9) We even developed
+a chess game, GNU Chess, because a complete system needs games too.
+
+By the early 90s we had put together the whole system aside from the
+kernel. We had also started a kernel, the GNU Hurd
+(<http://gnu.org/software/hurd/hurd.html>), which runs on top of Mach.
+Developing this kernel has been a lot harder than we expected; the GNU
+Hurd started working reliably in 2001, but it is a long way from being
+ready for people to use in general.[(10)](#FOOT10)
+
+Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait for the Hurd, because of Linux. Once
+Torvalds freed Linux in 1992, it fit into the last major gap in the GNU
+system. People could then combine Linux with the GNU
+system[(11)](#FOOT11) to make a complete free system—a version of the
+GNU system which also contained Linux. The GNU/Linux system, in other
+words.
+
+Making them work well together was not a trivial job. Some GNU
+components[(12)](#FOOT12) needed substantial change to work with Linux.
+Integrating a complete system as a distribution that would work “out of
+the box” was a big job, too. It required addressing the issue of how to
+install and boot the system—a problem we had not tackled, because we
+hadn’t yet reached that point. Thus, the people who developed the
+various system distributions did a lot of essential work. But it was
+work that, in the nature of things, was surely going to be done by
+someone.
+
+The GNU Project supports GNU/Linux systems as well as *the* GNU system.
+The FSF funded the rewriting of the Linux-related extensions to the GNU
+C Library, so that now they are well integrated, and the newest
+GNU/Linux systems use the current library release with no changes. The
+FSF also funded an early stage of the development of Debian GNU/Linux.
+
+Today there are many different variants of the GNU/Linux system (often
+called “distros”). Most of them include nonfree software—their
+developers follow the philosophy associated with Linux rather than that
+of GNU. But there are also completely free GNU/Linux
+distros.[(13)](#FOOT13) The FSF supports computer facilities for
+gNewSense (<http://gnewsense.org>).
+
+Making a free GNU/Linux distribution is not just a matter of eliminating
+various nonfree programs. Nowadays, the usual version of Linux contains
+nonfree programs too. These programs are intended to be loaded into I/O
+devices when the system starts, and they are included, as long series of
+numbers, in the “source code” of Linux. Thus, maintaining free GNU/Linux
+distributions now entails maintaining a free version of Linux
+(<http://directory.fsf.org/project/linux>) too.
+
+Whether you use GNU/Linux or not, please don’t confuse the public by
+using the name “Linux” ambiguously. Linux is the kernel, one of the
+essential major components of the system. The system as a whole is
+basically the GNU system, with Linux added. When you’re talking about
+this combination, please call it “GNU/Linux.”
+
+This article and “The GNU Project” (@pageref{GNU Project}) are good
+choices for promoting “GNU/Linux.” If you mention Linux, the kernel, and
+want to add a further reference, the FOLDOC (the Free On-Line Dictionary
+of Computing) web address, <http://foldoc.org/linux>, is a good URL to
+use.
+
+### Postscripts {#postscripts .subheading}
+
+Aside from GNU, one other project has independently produced a free
+Unix-like operating system. This system is known as BSD, and it was
+developed at UC Berkeley. It was nonfree in the 80s, but became free in
+the early 90s. A free operating system that exists today is almost
+certainly either a variant of the GNU system, or a kind of BSD
+system.[(14)](#FOOT14)
+
+People sometimes ask whether BSD too is a version of GNU, like
+GNU/Linux. The BSD developers were inspired to make their code free
+software by the example of the GNU Project, and explicit appeals from
+GNU activists helped persuade them, but the code had little overlap with
+GNU. BSD systems today use some GNU programs, just as the GNU system and
+its variants use some BSD programs; however, taken as wholes, they are
+two different systems that evolved separately. The BSD developers did
+not write a kernel and add it to the GNU system, and a name like GNU/BSD
+would not fit the situation.[(15)](#FOOT15)
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+### Footnotes
+
+### [(1)](#DOCF1)
+
+@raggedright See @pageref{Category GNU Operating System} for information
+on GNU system. @end raggedright
+
+### [(2)](#DOCF2)
+
+@raggedright For more information, see both “GNU Users Who Have Never
+Heard of GNU,” at
+<http://gnu.org/gnu/gnu-users-never-heard-of-gnu.html>, and “Overview of
+the GNU System,” at <http://gnu.org/gnu/gnu-history.html>. @end
+raggedright
+
+### [(3)](#DOCF3)
+
+@raggedright See @pageref{Definition} for the full definition of free
+software. @end raggedright
+
+### [(4)](#DOCF4)
+
+@raggedright See <http://gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.html> for the “GNU
+Manifesto.” @end raggedright
+
+### [(5)](#DOCF5)
+
+@raggedright See @pageref{Initial Announcement} for the “Initial
+Announcement.” @end raggedright
+
+### [(6)](#DOCF6)
+
+@raggedright See @pageref{Category GNU Software} for more information on
+GNU software. @end raggedright
+
+### [(7)](#DOCF7)
+
+@raggedright See <http://gnu.org/software/gcc/> for the GCC homepage.
+@end raggedright
+
+### [(8)](#DOCF8)
+
+@raggedright These unexciting but essential components include the GNU
+assembler (GAS) and the linker (GNU ld), both are now part of the GNU
+Binutils package (<http://gnu.org/software/binutils/>), GNU tar
+(<http://gnu.org/software/tar/>), and many more. @end raggedright
+
+### [(9)](#DOCF9)
+
+@raggedright For instance, The Bourne Again Shell (BASH), the PostScript
+interpreter Ghostscript
+(<http://gnu.org/software/ghostscript/ghostscript.html>), and the GNU C
+Library (<http://gnu.org/software/libc/libc.html>) are not programming
+tools. Neither are GNUCash, GNOME, and GNU Chess. @end raggedright
+
+### [(10)](#DOCF10)
+
+@raggedright See <http://gnu.org/software/hurd/hurd-and-linux.html> for
+why the FSF developed the GNU Hurd kernel. @end raggedright
+
+### [(11)](#DOCF11)
+
+@raggedright See “Notes for Linux Release 0.01,” at
+[http://ftp.funet.fi/pub/linux/\
+historical/kernel/old-versions/RELNOTES-0.01](http://ftp.funet.fi/pub/linux/%3Cbr%3Ehistorical/kernel/old-versions/RELNOTES-0.01).
+@end raggedright
+
+### [(12)](#DOCF12)
+
+@raggedright For instance, the GNU C Library
+(<http://gnu.org/software/libc/libc.html>). @end raggedright
+
+### [(13)](#DOCF13)
+
+@raggedright See <http://gnu.org/distros/> for a list of all the
+completely free distributions we know about. @end raggedright
+
+### [(14)](#DOCF14)
+
+@raggedright Since that was written, a nearly-all-free Windows-like
+system has been developed, but technically it is not at all like GNU or
+Unix, so it doesn’t really affect this issue. Most of the kernel of
+Solaris has been made free, but if you wanted to make a free system out
+of that, aside from replacing the missing parts of the kernel, you would
+also need to put it into GNU or BSD. @end raggedright
+
+### [(15)](#DOCF15)
+
+@raggedright On the other hand, in the years since this article was
+written, the GNU C Library has been ported to several versions of the
+BSD kernel, which made it straightforward to combine the GNU system with
+that kernel. Just as with GNU/Linux, these are indeed variants of GNU,
+and are therefore called, for instance, GNU/kFreeBSD and GNU/kNetBSD
+depending on the kernel of the system. Ordinary users on typical
+desktops can hardly distinguish between GNU/Linux and GNU/\*BSD. @end
+raggedright
+
+</div>
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+This document was generated by *tonghuix* on *March 25, 2016* using
+[*texi2html 1.82*](http://www.nongnu.org/texi2html/).\