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[-] dontsayaword@piefed.social 285 points 10 months ago

and the g in gnu stands for gnu

[-] Klear@quokk.au 104 points 10 months ago

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

[-] marcos@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago

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

[-] logi@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months 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.

[-] UnculturedSwine@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 10 months ago

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

[-] jaybone@lemmy.zip 3 points 10 months 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 10 months ago

Fun fact: The K in GNU stands for Kernel.

[-] Hupf@feddit.org 18 points 10 months ago
[-] entwine@programming.dev 12 points 10 months ago
[-] 0x0@lemmy.zip 2 points 10 months ago

Did make me actually laugh.

[-] psud@aussie.zone 2 points 10 months ago

GNU does have a kernel though

[-] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 54 points 10 months ago

Then what does the g in gnu stand for?

[-] Zink@programming.dev 102 points 10 months ago

you're not gonna believe this...

[-] jaybone@lemmy.zip 31 points 10 months ago

I’ve got g’news for you…

[-] Zink@programming.dev 7 points 10 months ago

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

[-] QBertReynolds@sh.itjust.works 32 points 10 months ago

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

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 10 months ago
[-] mech@feddit.org 22 points 10 months ago
[-] cypherix93@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago

as in the inventor of chess, THE Gary Chess?

[-] thethunderwolf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 10 months ago

rival of George Checkers?

[-] ripcord@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago
[-] degen@midwest.social 1 points 10 months ago

Greatsoftware Notwithstanding Unix

[-] pmk@piefed.ca 1 points 10 months ago
[-] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 1 points 10 months ago

Okay but what does the g stand for?

[-] justaman123@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Blue Gnu or Black Gnu?

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 21 points 10 months ago

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 17 points 10 months ago

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

[-] Zacryon@feddit.org 5 points 10 months ago
[-] merc@sh.itjust.works -3 points 10 months ago

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 10 months ago

Depends on where you're from.

[-] Zoot@reddthat.com 3 points 10 months ago
[-] ZombieSenpai@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 months ago
[-] Quibblekrust@thelemmy.club 5 points 10 months ago

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

this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2025
1200 points (99.6% liked)

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