RE: Irony (Words and Meanings)

["Scott Robert Ladd" <scott at coyotegulch dot com>]

Richard Stallman wrote
> One of the sad ironies of the GNU Project is that people give us
> awards in the name of "Linux"--not realizing that the system they are
> talking about is GNU.  Where an award is meant to honor people's work,
> this one actually minimizes our work.  (For more explanation, see
> http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html.)  They also describe our
> community as "open source", connecting GCC with the wrong movement.Hi,

Like many great ideas, using the term GNU/Linux is accurate, honest, and
probably a downright Good Idea.

But it's not going to happen.

The preponderance of usage, right or wrong, is to call the combination
"Linux". Beating the "GNU/Linux" drum is as futile as earlier attempts at
saving "hacker", or campaigns waged to keep "American" from referring to
U.S. citizens only. And don't get my T'nde (Apache) wife started on the word
"Indian"... ;)

"GNU/Linux" is hard to say, and seems to confuse the common folk. Explaining
what "GNU" means isn't important to most people; like any complex issue, the
vast majority of folk have no time for or interest in understand why "GNU"
is not "linUx" (so to speak).

I've spent a lot of time working on social justice issues -- and one thing
I've learned is that the message gets lost if it's too complicated. Just
explaining the differences between "open source" and "free" software will
make most people's eyes glaze over. They just don't care -- and neither do
companies that cater to the consumptive masses.

Words get meaning by how people use them, right or wrong. It may be galling,
it may be wrong, it may be a lot of things -- but scowling about it (as RMS
does) sounds petulant.

Freedom means the right to be "wrong" about the names for things. You have
much to be proud of, given the contributions of the GNU Project to the
world. Try focusing on the positive, rather than the perceived negative.

And thank you for your fine work, sir.

--
Scott Robert Ladd
Coyote Gulch Productions,  http://www.coyotegulch.com
No ads -- just very free (and somewhat unusual) code.