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1. What’s in a Name? {#whats-in-a-name .chapter}
====================
@firstcopyingnotice{{To learn more about this issue, you can read our
GNU/Linux FAQ, at , the essay
“Linux and the GNU System” (@pageref{Linux and GNU}), which gives a
history of the GNU/Linux system as it relates to this issue of naming,
and the article “GNU Users Who Have Never Heard of GNU,” at
.\
@footnoterule @smallskip Copyright © 2000, 2006, 2007 Richard Stallman\
{This essay was originally published on , in 2000. This
version is part of @fsfsthreecite} Names convey meanings; our choice of
names determines the meaning of what we say. An inappropriate name gives
people the wrong idea. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet—but
if you call it a pen, people will be rather disappointed when they try
to write with it. And if you call pens “roses,” people may not realize
what they are good for. If you call our operating system Linux, that
conveys a mistaken idea of the system’s origin, history, and purpose. If
you call it GNU/Linux, that conveys (though not in detail) an accurate
idea.
Does this really matter for our community? Is it important whether
people know the system’s origin, history, and purpose? Yes—because
people who forget history are often condemned to repeat it. The Free
World that has developed around GNU/Linux is not guaranteed to survive;
the problems that led us to develop GNU are not completely eradicated,
and they threaten to come back.
When I explain why it’s appropriate to call the operating system
GNU/Linux rather than Linux, people sometimes respond this way:
> Granted that the GNU Project deserves credit for this work, is it
> really worth a fuss when people don’t give credit? Isn’t the important
> thing that the job was done, not who did it? You ought to relax, take
> pride in the job well done, and not worry about the credit.
This would be wise advice, if only the situation were like that—if the
job were done and it were time to relax. If only that were true! But
challenges abound, and this is no time to take the future for granted.
Our community’s strength rests on commitment to freedom and cooperation.
Using the name GNU/Linux is a way for people to remind themselves and
inform others of these goals.
It is possible to write good free software without thinking of GNU; much
good work has been done in the name of Linux also. But the term “Linux”
has been associated ever since it was first coined with a philosophy
that does not make a commitment to the freedom to cooperate. As the name
is increasingly used by business, we will have even more trouble making
it connect with community spirit.
A great challenge to the future of free software comes from the tendency
of the “Linux” distribution companies to add nonfree software to
GNU/Linux in the name of convenience and power. All the major commercial
distribution developers do this; none limits itself to free software.
Most of them do not clearly identify the nonfree packages in their
distributions. Many even develop nonfree software and add it to the
system. Some outrageously advertise “Linux” systems that are “licensed
per seat,” which give the user as much freedom as Microsoft Windows.
People try to justify adding nonfree software in the name of the
“popularity of Linux”—in effect, valuing popularity above freedom.
Sometimes this is openly admitted. For instance, Wired magazine said
that Robert McMillan, editor of Linux Magazine, “feels that the move
toward open source software should be fueled by technical, rather than
political, decisions.”And Caldera’s CEO openly urged users to drop the
goal of freedom and work instead for the “popularity of
Linux.”[(1)](#FOOT1)
Adding nonfree software to the GNU/Linux system may increase the
popularity, if by popularity we mean the number of people using some of
GNU/Linux in combination with nonfree software. But at the same time, it
implicitly encourages the community to accept nonfree software as a good
thing, and forget the goal of freedom. It is not good to drive faster if
you can’t stay on the road.
When the nonfree “add-on” is a library or programming tool, it can
become a trap for free software developers. When they write free
software that depends on the nonfree package, their software cannot be
part of a completely free system. Motif and Qt trapped large amounts of
free software in this way in the past, creating problems whose solutions
took years. Motif remained somewhat of a problem until it became
obsolete and was no longer used. Later, Sun’s nonfree
Java implementation had a similar effect: the Java Trap,[(2)](#FOOT2)
fortunately now mostly corrected. If our community keeps moving in this
direction, it could redirect the future of GNU/Linux into a mosaic of
free and nonfree components. Five years from now, we will surely still
have plenty of free software; but if we are not careful, it will hardly
be usable without the nonfree software that users expect to find with
it. If this happens, our campaign for freedom will have failed.
If releasing free alternatives were simply a matter of programming,
solving future problems might become easier as our community’s
development resources increase. But we face obstacles that threaten to
make this harder: laws that prohibit free software. As software patents
mount up, and as laws like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act are used
to prohibit the development of free software for important jobs such as
viewing a DVD or listening to a RealAudio stream, we will find ourselves
with no clear way to fight the patented and secret data formats except
to *reject the nonfree programs that use them.*
Meeting these challenges will require many different kinds of effort.
But what we need above all, to confront any kind of challenge, is to
remember the goal of freedom to cooperate. We can’t expect a mere desire
for powerful, reliable software to motivate people to make great
efforts. We need the kind of determination that people have when they
fight for their freedom and their community—determination to keep on for
years and not give up.
In our community, this goal and this determination emanate mainly from
the GNU Project. We’re the ones who talk about freedom and community as
something to stand firm for; the organizations that speak of “Linux”
normally don’t say this. The magazines about “Linux” are typically full
of ads for nonfree software; the companies that package “Linux” add
nonfree software to the system; other companies “support Linux” by
developing nonfree applications to run on GNU/Linux; the user groups for
“Linux” typically invite salesmen to present those applications. The
main place people in our community are likely to come across the idea of
freedom and determination is in the GNU Project.
But when people come across it, will they feel it relates to them?
People who know they are using a system that came out of the GNU Project
can see a direct relationship between themselves and GNU. They won’t
automatically agree with our philosophy, but at least they will see a
reason to think seriously about it. In contrast, people who consider
themselves “Linux users,” and believe that the GNU Project “developed
tools which proved to be useful in Linux,” typically perceive only an
indirect relationship between GNU and themselves. They may just ignore
the GNU philosophy when they come across it.
The GNU Project is idealistic, and anyone encouraging idealism today
faces a great obstacle: the prevailing ideology encourages people to
dismiss idealism as “impractical.” Our idealism has been extremely
practical: it is the reason we have a free GNU/Linux operating system.
People who love this system ought to know that it is our idealism made
real.
If “the job” really were done, if there were nothing at stake except
credit, perhaps it would be wiser to let the matter drop. But we are not
in that position. To inspire people to do the work that needs to be
done, we need to be recognized for what we have already done. Please
help us, by calling the operating system GNU/Linux.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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