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.
The mascot of GNU is literally gnu (wildebeest).
The mascot of GNU is literally gnu (wildebeest), it is available under a copyleft license.
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.
@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ GNU has developed an almost unbelievable amount of software, it has software for
- [GNU Mediagoblin](mediagoblin.md) (decentralized file hosting on the [web](web.md))
@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ Linux is typically combined with a lot of [GNU](gnu.md) software and the [GNU](g
Linux is sometimes called [free as in freedom](free_software.md), however it is hardly deserving the label, it is more of an "[open-source](open_source.md)" or [FOSS](foss.md) project. **Linux is in many ways bad**, especially lately. Some reasons for this are:
- It actually includes [proprietary](proprietary.md) software in the form of [binary blobs](blob.md) ([drivers](drivers.md)). The [Linux-libre](linux_libre.md) project tries to fix this.
- It is [tranny software](tranny_software.md) and has a fascist [code of conduct](coc.md) (`linux/Documentation/process/code-of-conduct.rst`).
- It is [tranny software](tranny_software.md) and has a fascist [code of conduct](coc.md) (`linux/Documentation/process/code-of-conduct.rst`). Recently it started to even incorporate [Rust](rust.md).
- Its development practices are [sus](sus.md), it is involved with many unethical corporations (through the [linux foundation](linux_foundation.md)) including [Microsoft](microsoft.md) (one of the greatest enemies of free software) who is trying to take control over it ([EEE](eee.md)), [Google](google.md), [Intel](intel.md), [IBM](ibm.md) and others. Such forces will inevitably shape it towards corporate interests.
- It is a monolithic kernel which goes against the [KISS](kiss.md) philosophy.
- It is [bloat](bloat.md) and [bloat monopoly](bloat_monopoly.md) and in some ways [capitalist software](capitalist_software.md) (just try to fork Linux, maintain it and add/modify actual features).
Screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO) is a [screen space](screen_space.md) technique used in 3D [computer graphics](graphics.md) for **[approximating](approximation.md)** [ambient occlusion](ambient_occlusion.md) (basically "dim shadows in corners", which itself is an approximation of true [global illumination](global_illumination.md)) in a way that's easy and not so expensive to implement to run in [real time](real_time.md). The effect however looks ugly many times and is often criticized, see e.g. an excellent article at https://nothings.org/gamedev/ssao/.
{ 2023 report: SSAO is still bad as fuck. ~drummyfish }
{ 2023 report: SSAO still sucks. ~drummyfish }
Exact ambient occlusions can be computed with algorithms such as RTAO (which uses [raytracing](raytracing.md)), but this requires complete information about the geometry and is too slow without special hardware. Therefore some game devs cheat and use a cheap approximation: SSAO is implemented as a [post-processing](post_processing.md) [shader](shader.md) and only uses the information available on the screen, specifically in the [depth buffer](z_buffer.md) -- this gives only partial information about the actual scene geometry, i.e. the algorithm doesn't know what the back facing, screen-perpendicular or off-screen geometry looks like and has to make guesses which sometimes result in quite visible inaccuracies.
