Re: [Sheflug] linux.org

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <nospam [at] sk.tsukuba.ac.jp>]

>>>>> "Will" == Will Newton <will [at] misconception.org.uk> writes:

    Will> On Tue, 31 Oct 2000, Craig Andrews wrote:
    >> In fact, anyone who knows the difference between a kernel and
    >> an OS would be a little puzzled. I wonder what they were
    >> thinking? :)

    Will> Depends on your point of view. Both Silberschatz and
    Will> Tanenbaum make no real distinction between a "kernel" and an
    Will> "operating system". They talk of an "operating system" and
    Will> "application programs".

I have to agree with Will that Emacs, grep, and bash, which are very
characteristic of the "GNU system" as RMS promulgates it, are
definitely on the app side of the OS/app divide.

This means it's important not to forget that until about libc5, Linux
libc and GNU libc were about as different from each other (in terms of
the API and ABI they presented) as either from Berkeley libc.

Although Linux now uses vanilla GNU libc, Berkeley libc and GNU libc
continue to converge as well due to standards like POSIX and Unix98.
And as always Linux distros continue to provide many BSD utilities.  A
Linux system has a feel that is quite different from what you would
get on a system that restricts itself to code from the GNU Project.

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