Comment by kachapopopow

8 days ago

linux is the kernel gnu is the full operating system

Linux is both the name for the kernel and the full operating system.

  • Linux is definitely not a "full operating system."

    Here's Linux built on GitHub Actions, with Grub[1], and you can't do anything with it. I include a reference init that does nothing, per kernel.org. 17.8 MB image.

    GNU is by every practical measure, everything else. People memed on Stallman for the whole GNU/Linux naming, but he's basically right. There's also Android/Linux, that another user mentioned, and some distributions which don't use a GNU userland at all.

    But the wide majority of people are using GNU/Linux, or some ecosystem derivative of it, like people using GNOME, which was formerly a part of the GNU project.

    [1]: https://github.com/andrewmcwatters/linux-workflow