this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2025
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[–] dontsayaword@piefed.social 287 points 1 month ago (5 children)

and the g in gnu stands for gnu

[–] Klear@quokk.au 102 points 1 month ago (5 children)

So if I'm getting it right, gobject is short for gnugnu(...)gnuimptklibobject.

[–] marcos@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Following the modern C conventions, the text following the series of (gnu) doesn't matter and you can write anything you want there.

[–] degen@midwest.social 6 points 1 month ago

Gnugnugnufuckyou

[–] logi@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago

It is front recursive so it's really "...is not unix is not unix is not unix is not unix image manipulation program tool kit object" and that first g doesn't exist.

It's recursive so it's more like gnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnu...

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 month ago

Now you need to write a layer of typedefs to map the expanded names back to their original types.

[–] mech@feddit.org 67 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Fun fact: The K in GNU stands for Kernel.

[–] Hupf@feddit.org 17 points 1 month ago
[–] 0x0@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 weeks ago

Did make me actually laugh.

[–] psud@aussie.zone 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

GNU does have a kernel though

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 55 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Then what does the g in gnu stand for?

[–] Zink@programming.dev 102 points 1 month ago (1 children)

you're not gonna believe this...

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 31 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I’ve got g’news for you…

[–] Zink@programming.dev 7 points 1 month ago

g'news and g'day to you as well, g'lady!

[–] QBertReynolds@sh.itjust.works 33 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I think this is sarcasm, but just in case it isn't... GNU is a recursive acronym for "GNU's Not Unix".

[–] whosepoopisonmybuttocks@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

My guess for why they chose the letter g is that gnu can be phonetically the same as just nu, but keeps people from interpreting the name of the project as a dumb spelling of "new".

[–] io@piefed.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 month ago
[–] mech@feddit.org 22 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] cypherix93@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

as in the inventor of chess, THE Gary Chess?

[–] thethunderwolf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 month ago

rival of George Checkers?

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago
[–] degen@midwest.social 1 points 1 month ago

Greatsoftware Notwithstanding Unix

[–] pmk@piefed.ca 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Okay but what does the g stand for?

[–] justaman123@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Blue Gnu or Black Gnu?

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 20 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Yeah, they missed the best part.

GNU stands for GNU's Not Unix, which is a recursive acronym. And, when pronounced properly (like the animal) the G is silent. The entire Linux ecosystem has words that start with G based on an acronym where G essentially comes from nowhere, and isn't actually pronounced.

[–] rocnat@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Well, I dont wanna start a debate, but the official website of GNU indicate that the "g" in GNU isn't silent.

So it depends on whether you want to pronounce it "properly" or as it was intended.

The name “GNU” is a recursive acronym for “GNU's Not Unix!”; it is pronounced as one syllable with a hard g, like “grew” but with the letter n instead of r.

https://www.gnu.org/gnu/pronunciation.en.html

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works -3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Well, I dont wanna start a debate, but the official website of GNU indicate that the "g" in GNU isn't silent.

Yeah, but that's wrong. It's named after the animal, and the animal is pronounced without a G sound. I'm not going to mangle the pronunciation because they screwed up.

[–] anguo@piefed.ca 3 points 1 month ago

Depends on where you're from.

[–] Zoot@reddthat.com 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] ZombieSenpai@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 weeks ago
[–] Quibblekrust@thelemmy.club 5 points 1 month ago

I can't believe they didn't put this one in there!