I use Linux and I'm not even sure what Gnu is, except that the name is a recursive algorithm meaning "GNU's Not Unix", so presumably it's a Unix-like OS.
this post was submitted on 30 May 2025
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
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- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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H'okay, so.
There was this guy called Richard Stallman. Way on back in the day he was working with Bell Labs' UNIX at the university he worked for, and he got kinda butthurt about the extremely restrictive licensing terms and exorbitant cost that Bell Labs offered the OS for. So Stallman decided he was going to make his own OS with blackjack and hookers and offer it for free to anyone who could make use of it. The Usenet post he made announcing his intention mentions he knows someone who might get them a computer. He named his new operating system GNU, for GNU's Not Unix. It's a recursive acronym, which was popular at the time, it's apparently another name for a wildebeest or water buffalo or something, and it's an unpronounceable mouthful of socket wrenches, so it's the trend setter for free software packages even all these decades later.
They built a whole bunch of really important software; a shell, core utilities, a C compiler, and applications like emacs. But they never got a working kernel going, the actual engine of the OS. They worked on their own thing they called HURD (which of course is a recursive acronym they put more thought into than the software itself), they gave up and tried to acquire an existing one to use, then went back to working on HURD. They never really got a system off the ground for lack of a kernel.
Then a Finnish student named Linus Torvalds piped up and said "Hey I built an OS kernel for the 386 IBM PC, it's not as big or as professional as GNU, but maybe you guys'll find it interesting." He was persuaded to release Linux under the GNU Public License 2.0, and it wasn't long after that that the first operating systems built on the Linux kernel and GNU coreutils entered distribution.
Linux is the name of some software, GNU is the sound you make when punched in the throat, so people quickly started just calling this emerging ecosystem simply "Linux." Much to the chagrin of Richard Stallman who feels he isn't getting credit for his work. This is his punishment for being the absolute worst at naming things.
Much to the chagrin of Richard Stallman who feels he isn't getting credit for his work. This is his punishment for being the absolute worst at naming things.
Hear hear! And let's hope he learned his lesson!
I think it's linux as kernel + GNU utilities. I imagine the utilities to be all of the "linux" commands in the command line. May be wrong
That explainarion seems recursive in its self lol
Yup. Which is why I also cheer up seeing "I use Arch btw" (me too use Arch). Can't imagine myself giving educational speech on what open source software is and why it matters, but I surely can spam memes here and there
It's the very reason I am using Arch, just so I can be true to spamming "I use Arch btw". Genius advertising.
I use Arch btw -sniffs fart-
I've yet to meet someone not using it because of that meme
I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're refering to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.
Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called Linux, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.
There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called Linux distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux!
My only gripe with GNU is the acronym itself.
Sure, the joke is clever, a recursive acronym "GNU is Not Unix", cute. But they could have used absolutely any letter as the first letter and that joke would still work. So why didn't they choose something pronounceable? I mean, the option was right there. ENU, ANU, INU, ONU, SNU, those would all work. Hell, even NNU would work, you could pronounce it "the new project".
That's not true anymore, there's distros like Alpine which are not built using gnu tools.
Was Alpine built specifically to be able to tune out Richard Stallman?
Apline is Linux/Busyibox or smth like that. However, that does not make 99% of distros not GNU/Linux.
Saying that the whole Debian, RHEL, SUSE and Arch realm (ie. stuff like Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS, Opensuse, EndeavourOS, Manjaro etc) and countless other distros are not GNU/Linux would be as, if not more, disingenuous as calling Alpine "GNU/Linux"
Also Alpine is not only dwarfed in terms of quantity of G!NU/Linux distros, but also in amount of users/instances; both desktop- and server-side
"I use Linux as my operating system," I state proudly to the unkempt, bearded man. He swivels around in his desk chair with a devilish gleam in his eyes, ready to mansplain with extreme precision. "Actually", he says with a grin, "Linux is just the kernel. You use GNU+Linux!' I don't miss a beat and reply with a smirk, "I use Alpine, a distro that doesn't include the GNU coreutils, or any other GNU code. It's Linux, but it's not GNU+Linux." The smile quickly drops from the man's face. His body begins convulsing and he foams at the mouth and drops to the floor with a sickly thud. As he writhes around he screams "I-IT WAS COMPILED WITH GCC! THAT MEANS IT'S STILL GNU!" Coolly, I reply "If windows was compiled with gcc, would that make it GNU?" I interrupt his response with "-and work is being made on the kernel to make it more compiler-agnostic. Even you were correct, you wont be for long." With a sickly wheeze, the last of the man's life is ejected from his body. He lies on the floor, cold and limp. I've womansplained him to death.
If memory serves, Alpine is not entirely free of GNU software. Checking their own website, they use GCC and GNU Make:
https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/packages
But even when/if Alpine (or anyone else) creates a distro entirely free of GNU software, the vast majority of mainstream distributions would still fall under the "GNU/Linux" umbrella when the typical user is discussing Linux.
Instance checks out.
dot world users don’t get to talk about instances lol
wow, the KDE Advanced Text Editor in person!
And Chimera Linux (not to be confused with ChimeraOS, the GNUish gaming distro).
Ironically, Stallman himself is probably a prime motivation for Alpine and Chimera Linux, in a sort of "I'm sick of hearing this crap" way. Although it does say something about GNU that Alpine was also shooting for a distribution with as little bloat as possible, and it largely succeeded. For a long time, it was one of the most lightweight distributions around, leading to its popularity as a container base.
I thought gnu was another name for a wildebeest. How do you even put a wildebeest on your computer?
I learned about it because Richard stallman gave a speech at my campus (pre-controversy) and half his speech was the gnu copy pasta unironically. Which I get, if i made core software that most of the world's server runs on, I wouldn't shut up about it either.
I know GNU because it’s a recursive acronym.
The real Linux fork bomb
I like using the GNU's Not Unix Image Manipulation Program ToolKit when I make GUIs.
Have you ever used the GNU's Not Unix Image Manipulation Program ToolKit America Online Instant Messenger?
*GNU is my pepper
Ah, so a GUI is in fact a GNU User Interface ?
I think we should call them Gnuser Interfaces and shorten it to GI. Gnome systems only.
yeah, but what does GNU stand for?
GNU's Not Unix.
See my comment here to see what the GNU part stands for: https://sh.itjust.works/comment/18917548
From your user name to the link joke.
This is a real master piece
No one can really know what GNU stands for unless they can perform an infinite recursion in constant time.
GNU isn't entirely infinite though. After unpacking GNU is Not Unix 10^45 times, you actually find out what the final G is for.
I actually wrote a script to figure out what the last G stands for. The last G stsnds for "RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded". Pretty weird.
NaN's not UNIX
This is why it really should have been called "NNU", that would work perfectly.
whats the copypasta?
It's the top comment
Wait. People don't know about Hurd?
The superior kernel! (at least on paper)
Somehow I feel like a kernel is less effective on paper than on silicon & copper, but that's just me.
Gary Gnu?
I know what GNU is because I witnessed the people this meme was modeled after.
Is the big joke that it actually is Unix?
No. Because it isn't, though GNU terminal commands are generally Unix compatible.
It's like if you had a dog (Sir Licksalot) and taught him to "sit", "roll over" and "stay". And then you got a second dog (Barkley Von Woofington the 3rd) and you taught him the same commands.
Licksalot and Barkley respond to the same commands but they're definitely different dogs. They may even perform the commands differently sometimes, so it's important to know which dog you're dealing with. (so you can give them the appropriate amount of belly rubs)