this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2024
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"The OS" doesn't exist. The operating systems you're talking about are called Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, Fedora, RHEL, etc etc. The main work of making an actually usable OS from the various free software components others have written has always been done by the teams responsible for these products.
But we still need a way to refer to them collectively, and it used to make sense to call them "Linux" because they were pretty much the only operating systems that used the Linux kernel, but now that Android is the most widely used OS on the planet, it doesn't anymore, and this alone is a reason to say GNU/Linux unless you want to include Android.
Systemd/GNU/Linux/GTK or Systemd/GNU/Linux/QT, really…
GTK being a part of GNU (at least originally)
Sure, I should have gone further.
Systemd/GNU libc/GNU Coreutils/GNU BASH/Linux/X11//GTK/GNOME
Systemd/GNU libc/GNU Coreutils/GNU BASH/Linux/X11/GTK/LXDE
Systemd/GNU libc/GNU Coreutils/Zsh/Linux/X11/GTK/GNOME
Systemd/GNU libc/GNU Coreutils/Zsh/Linux/X11/GTK/LXDE
SysVInit/musl/Busybox/tcsh/Linux/csh
Systemd/GNU libc/GNU Coreutils/Zsh/Linux/Wayland/QT/KDE Plasma
Systemd/GNU libc/GNU Coreutils/Zsh/Linux/Wayland/QT/LXQT
etc, etc.
There are thousands of combinations of the possible layers needed to make an OS.
the thing is that not all of them use systemd or bash or zsh or even X11 (servers don't usually have X11 installed)
All of them use a Linux kernel and many components that were originally developed for GNU, especially the C library.
Yes, I listed sysvinit for that reason. And Musl instead of glibc. GNU is optional in a Linux distro, except for the kernel's use of a GNU license.
Except Alpine & those based on it, which uses Linux but not GNU libc or GNU coreutils or GNU BASH... Just musl libc & Busybox. I.e. the entire subject of this thread is one of the non-GNU Linuxes.
I don't use those, I select my own components using SystemD OS.
Like my configuration actually has to specify whether I'm using gnome or KDE, nothing is "by default" in my distro except for SystemD
I understand distributions (Debian, Arch, etc.) are what users will use. But those distributions have a foundation to build off of (that's what I'm referring to when I say OS), and that foundation most distributions use is GNU and Linux.
GNU came first, and the final piece of the missing puzzle was Linux. Adding in Linux shouldn't overshadow all the incredible work the GNU project took over 7 years to create.
Android is a different issue, although it certainly puts a hole in the logic of calling the desktop OS Linux. "[Android] contains Linux, but it isn't Linux."
This is a rabbit hole. Most software packages out there use hundreds of modules with other names. Heck, I bet the client you are using would require 27 different slashes for this to make sense.
Sometimes you put a lot of work into a foundation. Sometimes you use a foundation. Pride in one's work does not always require recognition.