WDYT about GNU
from frankenswine@lemmy.world to programming@programming.dev on 31 May 12:05
https://lemmy.world/post/47574868

I’m interested in finding out what people think when they see something GNU. What do you associate with it? Do you tend to be more or less interested in the project if.it is GNU or not? What is your perspective?

#programming

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mitram@sopuli.xyz on 31 May 12:21 next collapse

I don’t know much about it. All I know is GNU software is somehow important to how Linux works on the low-level layers.

emb@lemmy.world on 31 May 13:04 next collapse

I generally think of GNU as being foundational (or, old) and principled.

I really appreciate the contributions they’ve made to both core utilities and especially philosophy.

But I don’t see them as lighting up the world or adding anything new lately. I think of vaporware like Hurd with 1000 year dev cycles. I think of them recommending Linux distributions like Trisquel that let perfect be the enemy of pretty good.

Eldritch@piefed.world on 31 May 15:31 collapse

To be fair, Hurd recently made a decent splash. And strictly speaking, it’s troubles weren’t specifically GNU. Without all the legal quagmire around BSD we would all be on it. Linux would just be some niche hobby project just like Hurd. It was unfortunately a victim of timing. Both in that sense and the direction computing took in the future. Heavy IPC across multiple discrete CPU cores is a bad idea for performance. It works but it’s slooooow

x74sys@programming.dev on 31 May 13:05 next collapse

GNU is a trusted quality stamp. Me see GNU, me go GET.

floofloof@lemmy.ca on 31 May 13:11 next collapse

I think of it as being made by one of few really trustworthy organizations in tech.

thingsiplay@lemmy.ml on 31 May 14:33 collapse

More trustworthy than Microslop? /s

JoMiran@lemmy.ml on 31 May 15:53 collapse

More trustworthy than Google?

daeraxa@programming.dev on 31 May 14:26 next collapse

Honestly hard to say. Very much have respect for existing ubiquitous tools and for their copyleft and open source advocacy but they come across as very ‘elitist’ and reluctant to move to more common open source patterns (for better or worse). Like it seems that contributing to a GNU project seems challenging in needing to get involved with mailing lists and emailing patches etc. Although it seems GUIX uses Codeberg so maybe that stance has softened a bit.

thingsiplay@lemmy.ml on 31 May 14:32 next collapse

Are we talking about the license or about the software collection? GNU is a huge part of Linux operating systems and open source history. I don’t have a problem with GNU and don’t know why anyone would.

JoMiran@lemmy.ml on 31 May 15:52 collapse

Linux is only the kernel for the OS. GNU is most everything else that makes Linux (GNU Linux) an OS.

thingsiplay@lemmy.ml on 31 May 15:59 collapse

That’s why I said “GNU is a huge part of Linux operating systems”. Both parts are important for the history of Linux based operating systems.

JoMiran@lemmy.ml on 31 May 16:53 collapse

Oh, I wasn’t arguing. I was clarifying for anyone reading the thread and out of the loop.

Euphoma@lemmy.ml on 31 May 14:43 collapse

If its gnu software it probably has integration with emacs