drummyfish/less_retarded_wiki
5
1
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull requests Projects Releases Packages Wiki Activity

Update

Browse source
This commit is contained in:
Miloslav Ciz 2023-10-16 15:05:26 +02:00
parent c79d8f10b6
commit 67680b9f6c
10 changed files with 38 additions and 15 deletions
Download patch file Download diff file Expand all files Collapse all files

6
gnu.md
View file

@ -1,14 +1,14 @@
# GNU
GNU (*"GNU is Not Unix"*, a [recursive](recursion.md) acronym) is a large project started by [Richard Stallman](rms.md), the inventor of [free (as in freedom) software](free_software.md), running since 1983 with the goal of creating a completely free (as in freedom) [operating system](os.md), along with other free [software](software.md) that computer users might need. The project doesn't tolerate any [proprietary](proprietary.md) software. The project achieved its goal of creating a complete operating system when a [kernel](kernel.md) named [Linux](linux.md) became part of it in the 90s as the last piece of the puzzle -- the system is now known as GNU/Linux. However, the GNU project didn't end and continues to further develop the operating system as well as a myriad of other software projects it hosts. GNU gave rise to the [Free Software Foundation](fsf.md) and is one of the most important software projects in history of computing.
GNU (*"GNU is Not Unix"*, a [recursive](recursion.md) acronym) is a large project started by [Richard Stallman](rms.md), the inventor of [free (as in freedom) software](free_software.md), running since 1983 with the goal of creating a completely free (as in freedom) [operating system](os.md), along with other free [software](software.md) that computer users might need. The project doesn't tolerate any [proprietary](proprietary.md) software (though it sadly tolerates proprietary data). The project achieved its goal of creating a complete operating system when a [kernel](kernel.md) named [Linux](linux.md) became part of it in the 90s as the last piece of the puzzle -- the system is now known as GNU/Linux. However, the GNU project didn't end and continues to further develop the operating system as well as a myriad of other software projects it hosts. GNU gave rise to the [Free Software Foundation](fsf.md) and is one of the most important software projects in history of computing.
The mascot of GNU is literally gnu (wildebeest), it is available under a copyleft license.
The mascot of GNU is literally gnu (wildebeest), it is available under a copyleft license. WARNING: ironically GNU is extremely protective of their brand's "intellectual property" and will rape you if you use the name GNU without permission (see the case of GNU boot). It's quite funny and undermines the whole project a bit.
The GNU/Linux operating system has several variants in a form of a few GNU approved "Linux" [ditributions](distro.md) such as [Guix](guix.md), [Trisquel](trisquel.md) or [Parabola](parabola.md). Most other "Linux" distros don't meet the strict standards of GNU such as not including any proprietary software. In fact the approved distros can't even use the standard version of [Linux](linux.md) because that contains proprietary [blobs](blob.md), a modified variant called [Linux-libre](linux_libre.md) has to be used.
GNU greatly prefers [GPL](gpl.md) [licenses](license.md), i.e. it strives for [copyleft](copyleft.md), even though it accepts even projects under permissive licenses. GNU also helps with enforcing these licenses legally and advises developers to transfer their [copyright](copyright.md) to GNU so that they can "defend" the software for them.
Although GNU is great and has been one of the best things to happen in software ever, it has its flaws. For example their programs are known to be kind of a [bloat](bloat.md), at least from the strictly [suckless](suckless.md) perspective. It also doesn't mind proprietary non-functional data (e.g. assets in video games) and their obsession with copyleft also isn't completely aligned with [LRS](lrs.md).
Although GNU is great and has been one of the best things to happen in software ever, it has many flaws. For example their programs are known to be kind of a [bloat](bloat.md), at least from the strictly [suckless](suckless.md) perspective. **It also doesn't mind proprietary non-functional data** (e.g. assets in video games) and their obsession with copyleft also isn't completely aligned with [LRS](lrs.md). GNU is also generally **NOT supportive of [free culture](free_culture.md) and use copyright to prohibit modifications of their propaganda texts**: the [GFDL](gfdl.md) license they use for texts may contain sections that are prohibited from being modified and so are non-free by definition. This sucks big time and shows some of fascist corruption withing the movement.
## History