Hi

Even though the correct term is GNU/Linux, I can honestly say I still called it linux maybe it's just by habit. How about you?

Hi there,

it depends on what I actually mean. If I mean the pure OS (that is, the kernel), I call it "Linux", of course. If I refer to the complete, fully usable entity, I'd rather call it "a Linux-based system", or, getting more specific, a particular Linux distro.

Sorry, no direct vote in your poll, it doesn't differentiate sufficiently.

[X] Doc CPU

i usually refer to it by the specific distro... but i can understand rich stallman/fsf drive to call it gnu/linux. if i worked on a large (possibly largest) component of a system yet someone else gets the noteriety i'd be frustrated as well.

2 members found this post helpful.

I've always called it by the Distro unless Im talking about the kernel. But I've never said GNU/Linux.

I, too, call it "Linux" for short, but IMHO, both are wrong; each distro is an individual OS where Linux is the core kernel, and the rest is built/added with GNU tools. You've never heard anyone referring to Windows as "C+/DOS" have you?

I generally refer to it as Linux.

Thanks to all who voted and replied.

I know linux is just the kernel and GNU/Linux is the kernel and the gnu utilities and distro refers to both plus miscellaneous applications.

Even though some of us knows this we still use the term Linux or GNU/Linux in conversions or in writing. Even article writers use one of these terms when talking about linux as the whole OS. It's weird but it happens everywhere

Bill Gates is reported to have a pool at his mansion shaped in the in the letters of C+/DOS. This is not true, but it is what we are reporting.

1 members found this post helpful.

Hi there,

in a very relaxed, colloquial context I sometimes do that, too - knowing that, counting beans, it isn't entirely correct.

No. Each distro is a pre-packaged software bundle with Linux as its OS (by the way, "core kernel" is a pleonasm).

That's a different story. "Windows" is a marketing term referring to the whole package consisting of an OS, a GUI, a desktop environment, and a few simple applications. Contrasting to that, "Linux" is, strictly speaking, only the OS.

[X] Doc CPU

I voted GNU/Linux, even though I sometimes refer to it as Linux. Let's give credit where it's due for all the GNU tools.

1 members found this post helpful.

Just Linux.

I voted GNU/Linux, but truthfully until recently I just used Linux.

In written communications I have tried to learn to use GNU/Linux and have come to think it is important, especially when communicating with people unfamiliar with it in either usage - it plants the seed, "What is this GNU?".

In spoken useage I mostly use Linux because speaking "GNU/Linux" just doesn't roll off the tongue! But I do always make a point to mention GNU at some point just to raise it in the listener's mind.

In another thread here today I mentioned how I was introduced to (GNU/)Linux, and at the time I did not really register the distinction, although my own Linux-mentor was a champion of GNU and clearly knew the value of each. The value to myself at the time was all about access to gcc, the GNU toolchain and the shell. I thought of it as Linux, but in retrospect the real value was GNU, Linux was the delivery mechanism.

We would not have the one without the other, but GNU does not receive the respect and recognition it deserves, even from those who know better, and we should work to remedy that.

2 members found this post helpful.

Just Linux

1 members found this post helpful.

I must say that I don't think I have ever used the term GNU/Linux in a spontaneous utterance

I am going to change!

2 members found this post helpful.