Re: Hurd FS hierarchy (was Re: LD_LIBRARY_PATH troubles)

[Richard Kreuter]

On Mon, May 20, 2002 at 07:51:02PM +0200, Marcus Brinkmann wrote:
> On Mon, May 20, 2002 at 12:50:08AM -0700, Grant Bowman wrote:
> > Richard Kreuter wasted others' time writing:
> > > This is the annex for the GNU operating system.  We sometimes refer
> > > to this as the GNU/Hurd system, in cases where it is necessary to
> > > distinguish the GNU system from other systems that use large amounts
> > > of GNU software.
> >
> > Good, but I think this does not acknowledge that GNU/Linux is still a
> > GNU system.
>
> Nitpicking, but anyway, I am stretching out my neck here.
> GNU/Linux is a variant of the GNU system based on the Linux kernel.

  I added the line about sometimes calling GNU GNU/Hurd for a couple
of reasons. First, some people might not want to admit that GNU/Linux
is a variant of the GNU system, and it seems needless to introduce
that contentious point in a draft annex to this standard.  Second,
IIRC, the last time there was a list thread about the naming of the
system (on debian-hurd, maybe last fall), the consensus/policy was
that GNU and GNU/Hurd were synonymous, with the latter to be used for
clarity in case GNU should be distinguished from GNU/Linux.  I hoped
that the above paragraph would convey the idea that GNU/Linux was
substantially the GNU system without using obviously loaded language.

  At this point, though, the draft doesn't point out any distinctions
between GNU and GNU/Linux systems, so the whole thing can be dropped.
Whichever expression everybody (give or take) likes best is the right
way to go.

> > Generally, I think GNU alone is ambiguous and shouldn't be used given
> > the climate today.
> 
> It might very well be that the best thing for the FHS is to use GNU/Hurd.
> It's a good and proper name for the system, no need to be shy about that.

  It seems more fitting to me to recognize the accomplishments and
aims of the GNU project by calling the system GNU whenever possible,
but will change reference to GNU to GNU/Hurd if you think that's best.

Regards,
Richard