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How many GNU/Linux users are needed to change a light bulb?

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Re: How many GNU/Linux users are needed to change a light bulb?

#31

Post by peterburkimsher »

2 to summon a daemon in the dark.

4 to resign from their positions as leaders of the mailing list, blaming the daemon for their stress.

Half the community to insist that daemons are against their philosophy.

The other half to argue that it's an improvement on the old days when they had to bash rocks together to start a fire to have light.

One to accidentally try connecting the new lightbulb to a pipe, before realising it doesn't accept stdin.

A vocal 10% of the community to insist that dark mode is better.

A system tester to insist that the room is still light during working hours. Credit where due: https://devhumor.com/media/it-jobs-explained-with-a-broken-l...

(There's more where this is coming from. If you want to help me write a book for ages 5-7 entitled "ed and the awk", I have a first draft and would enjoy sharing it).

Re: How many GNU/Linux users are needed to change a light bulb?

#32

Post by raverbashing »

david_draco wrote: post #7
4778468d wrote: post #4

Why is GNU/Linux still a thing? What’s the GNU bit of Linux?

Only almost everything of the programs (ls, grep, bash, gcc, etc). Linux is just the kernel. Stallman lead development of most of the shell environment you use today.

GNU Hurd will be ready any day now

Re: How many GNU/Linux users are needed to change a light bulb?

#33

Post by jhasse »

david_draco wrote: post #7
4778468d wrote: post #4

Why is GNU/Linux still a thing? What’s the GNU bit of Linux?

Only almost everything of the programs (ls, grep, bash, gcc, etc). Linux is just the kernel. Stallman lead development of most of the shell environment you use today.

I'm using exa, rg, fish and clang though ;)

Re: How many GNU/Linux users are needed to change a light bulb?

#36

Post by caspper69 »

exciteabletom wrote: post #18
ivalm wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Grep, ls, bash, (g)awk, grub, gcc, make, gzip, tar, time, plotutils, gimp, gnome, emacs and many, many other things

I don't want to diminish rms and gnu's work in progressing software freedom and these programs are of course big contributions to a lot of Linux systems. However, I use i3 instead of gnome, systemd isn't a part of gnu, I also use Firefox instead of Epiphany. Should I refer to my system as gnu/i3/systemd/Mozilla/Linux? It's easier to refer to modular systems using the one guaranteed common element, in this case, the k…

You are correct, it is not necessary to specify every major user-space program. But with GNU/Linux, GNU is the operating system. In fact, there have been Linux distros ported to run on *BSD kernels.

It's more like this: the whole OS is GNU (the coreutils), minus the kernel (most of which is device drivers). That's why they do it. Or at least why there are those that are passionate about the naming.

Also the reason why, had 4.3BSD not been in legal limbo, we'd all most likely be using GNU/FreeBSD.

Re: How many GNU/Linux users are needed to change a light bulb?

#37

Post by enriquto »

fnord123 wrote: post #16
enriquto wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the name is a bit cumbersome. I simply call my operating system "GNU", no need to specify the kernel. Paired with a neat interface (black xterm on a solid black background without panel nor window decorations), people walk confusedly by my computer and ask: what's that wicked system of yours? And I say: "That's the GNU operating system, man!" It never ceases to cause a stir.

You forgot "and everyone clapped".

I thought the sarcasm was obvious.

(actually, my setup is like I described, but nobody notices)

Re: How many GNU/Linux users are needed to change a light bulb?

#38

Post by jankotek »

rich_sasha wrote: post #34

50 users saying the lightbulb at their house is working, so it must be a configuration error. Suggest looking at the output of lgtconfig -v to debug.

Not so funny with modern IoT, maybe firmware upgrade is needed or restart wireless router :)

Re: How many GNU/Linux users are needed to change a light bulb?

#39

Post by csunbird »

aequitas wrote: post #2

> The father of the first user, who while everyone was discussing, went to the shop and bought the cheapest lightbulb. Of course it doesn't end there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbSehcT19u0 (lightbulb scene from Malcolm in the Middle).

I think the term for that is "Shaving the Yak" https://seths.blog/2005/03/dont_shave_that/ (I am not associated with this site)

Re: How many GNU/Linux users are needed to change a light bulb?

#40

Post by 4778468d »

ivalm wrote: post #9
4778468d wrote: post #4

Why is GNU/Linux still a thing? What’s the GNU bit of Linux?

Grep, ls, bash, (g)awk, grub, gcc, make, gzip, tar, time, plotutils, gimp, gnome, emacs and many, many other things

There’s so much stuff on a Linux os.

Seems a bit of a stretch to say that providing a bunch of command line utilities gives operating system naming rights.

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