The Linux community is not exactly happy with the comments

May 27, 2015 07:11 GMT  ·  By

Richard Stallman is the President of the Free Software Foundation and also the founder of GNU or GNU's Not Unix! operating system that contains only free software. One of his constant claims is that GNU/Linux is a misnomer and that it shouldn't be used. In fact, he's now saying that the GNU operating system is often called Linux.

There was always friction between Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux. They had numerous quarrels over the years, mainly about using the GNU in conjunction with Linux. The main problem seems to be that GNU is all about free software, and the Linux kernel has some proprietary blobs or non-free software.

For years, Richard Stallman tried to change the name of Linux into something else, but he didn't make any headway. He even said that if you want to be free, you shouldn't follow Linus Torvalds. This issue would be solved really easily if GNU used its own Hurd kernel, but it's so out of date that it's funny to see it make headlines. Keep in mind, Hurd still doesn't have a 64-bit version.

Richard Stallman is no longer trying

After years of trying to change the name of Linux into something more appropriate like Lignux, Stallman settled on GNU/Linux for a while. We've seen this GNU/Linux appended to distros for years, but that name is no longer widely used. Users and developers alike use Linux, and this is making Stallman a very unhappy person. In fact, he is no longer even trying to make any kind of compromise, and he's just saying that Linux is GNU.

Richard Stallman made some comments in an article on theguardian.com, where he's talking about the malware in Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, and Android. He doesn't miss the chance of making a reference to Linux.

"I developed the GNU operating system, which is often called Linux, to escape and end that injustice," says Stallman. This, of course, hasn't escaped the ever-watching eye of the community and people are once more divided.

So, what do you think? Is Richard Stallman right?