GNU and Linux: Different or the same? Post: 37444

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Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers GNU and Linux: Different or the same? Post 37444 by norsk hedensk on Wednesday 18th of June 2003 10:18:50 PM

06-18-2003

Registered User

GNU is a recursive acronym for Gnu's NOT Unix. this was common hacker naming proceedure in the AI labs back in the 70s. if you really want to get technical on the explanation, you could subscribe to Stallman's naming conventions for this whole GNU (/) Linux thing..... (gasps for air...) GNU is actually the operating system that uses the Linux kernel. the kernel is the last ( well close ) layer between the software and the hardware in a computer system. an operating system is basically a set of programs ( tools, if you will ) that make up the whole system. you have ls, cd, mkdir, cp, and many many others for filesystem manipulation, you have gcc for c code compilation, you have various tools for configuring devices, ie ifconfig , modprobe, insmod, etc etc etc. these are all what make up the operating system. we have a unix-like system today, ( which is effectivley unix, for all practical USAGE purposes, its UNIX ) IP issues and copyright aside, GNU/Linux IS unix. anyway what the GNU people would like you to call the operating system you are using, is GNU/Linux. GNU is the system, Linux is the kernel. originally the GNU system was going to use the HURD kernel, but it wasnt ready when Linux was ready for testing on the net, and so GNU uses linux as its kernel. and of course, the aim of all this was/is to create a 'free' unix like os, a non commercial OS that can be used, distributed however one likes, ( within the limitations of the GPL ), theres lots more explanation that could be given but i will stop there. for more info, see the gnu.org website, as well as one of my favorite sites for reading about cool stuff, the jargon file, hold on lemme find that link....here it is : http://catb.org/esr/jargon/html/

have alot of fun

norsk hedensk

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LEARN ABOUT CENTOS

uname

UNAME(1)							   User Commands							  UNAME(1)

NAME

       uname - print system information

SYNOPSIS

       uname [OPTION]...

DESCRIPTION

       Print certain system information.  With no OPTION, same as -s.

       -a, --all
	      print all information, in the following order, except omit -p and -i if unknown:

       -s, --kernel-name
	      print the kernel name

       -n, --nodename
	      print the network node hostname

       -r, --kernel-release
	      print the kernel release

       -v, --kernel-version
	      print the kernel version

       -m, --machine
	      print the machine hardware name

       -p, --processor
	      print the processor type or "unknown"

       -i, --hardware-platform
	      print the hardware platform or "unknown"

       -o, --operating-system
	      print the operating system

       --help display this help and exit

       --version
	      output version information and exit

       GNU coreutils online help: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/> Report uname translation bugs to <http://translationproject.org/team/>

AUTHOR

       Written by David MacKenzie.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.  License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
       This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.  There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

SEE ALSO

       arch(1), uname(2)

       The  full  documentation  for uname is maintained as a Texinfo manual.  If the info and uname programs are properly installed at your site,
       the command

	      info coreutils 'uname invocation'

       should give you access to the complete manual.

GNU coreutils 8.22						     June 2014								  UNAME(1)