this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2024
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It would seem that GNU/Linux or Linux (whatever the user-accessing operating system is called) is the only OS that must mention its kernel. No one calls Windows the NT operating system, nor does anyone call Mac OS the Darwin operating system. So why should Linux be the exception?
When I think of GNU, I think of a project that had a very particular goal in mind: build an operating system that replaces Unix with entirely free software. The project got nearly all the way there, but before they got a usable kernel working, Torvalds licensed his kernel with the GPL. With the Linux kernel combined with GNU, we have an OS the GNU project set out to create. So why should Torvalds get all the credit? Without calling the OS GNU, most people don't even know how or why it came to be.
I could see a valid argument to just simply call the OS GNU. It was the name the original team gave the project to have a fully functional OS made with entirely free software. True, Torvalds didn't write Linux for GNU, but neither did the X Window System. A Kernel is essential for operation though, so I can see why the name GNU/Linux was proposed.
"The OS" doesn't exist. The operating systems you're talking about are called Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, Fedora, RHEL, etc etc. The main work of making an actually usable OS from the various free software components others have written has always been done by the teams responsible for these products.
But we still need a way to refer to them collectively, and it used to make sense to call them "Linux" because they were pretty much the only operating systems that used the Linux kernel, but now that Android is the most widely used OS on the planet, it doesn't anymore, and this alone is a reason to say GNU/Linux unless you want to include Android.
I understand distributions (Debian, Arch, etc.) are what users will use. But those distributions have a foundation to build off of (that's what I'm referring to when I say OS), and that foundation most distributions use is GNU and Linux.
GNU came first, and the final piece of the missing puzzle was Linux. Adding in Linux shouldn't overshadow all the incredible work the GNU project took over 7 years to create.
Android is a different issue, although it certainly puts a hole in the logic of calling the desktop OS Linux. "[Android] contains Linux, but it isn't Linux."
This is a rabbit hole. Most software packages out there use hundreds of modules with other names. Heck, I bet the client you are using would require 27 different slashes for this to make sense.
Sometimes you put a lot of work into a foundation. Sometimes you use a foundation. Pride in one's work does not always require recognition.