Is it a long name for an OS? Well, that just shows the teams involved in bringing the free Operating system to main stream use. Let us take one by one.
1. Debian is a community effort in putting together the other two team that is, GNU/Linux into a nice "little" package(The number of apps available ever increasing. Right now Lenny occupies five DVDs or one Blue ray disc!!!) complete with installers, configuration files, partition tools and others which make all the apps gel together.
2. GNU is a recursive acronym for "GNUs Not Unix". It was started by RMS as a complete operating system complete with all the regular apps required for any computer user. It was to be based on Unix. GNU/Hurd the kernel was started with a micro-kernel approach a la minix. But the project is still in alpha stage. But the apps are now available in plenty. So RMS has completed one of his objectives. the kernel issue was filled up by Linux. All the apps which are a part of GNU project is called the "GNU user land".
3. Linux is the kernel now being used by the GNU project since Hurd is still not ready. Linux is the core of the free operating system. It is a monolythic kernel unlike any other since it has loadable modules support. process mgmt, Device access, file operations, memory management etc are carried out by the kernel. The kernel is the portion which makes the user apps not bother about how memory is managed or how processes are created.
So now we see that we need all the three teams to collaborate closely with each other to successfully produce the "Free" operating system which any user can use without any licencing problems associated with other copyrighted OS. So start using any of the GNU/Linux flavors and taste the real meaning of freedom.
In the next blog we will see how Debain Gnu/Linux can be Debian GNU/kbsd or Debian GNU/Hurd.
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Nobody can deter me away from "free as in freedom" concept seeded by Sri RMS. See to it that u dont make fun of my belief. If u think otherwise, no need to comment.