[c1yd3i]

I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.

Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called "Linux", and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.

There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called "Linux" distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.

[wrycoder]

If Stallman had not written gcc, gdb, his version of emacs, the basic gnu utils, and, most importantly, the GPL, there would probably be no "Linux". Torvalds would have had to write a complete OS, and he probably would have got a job and a life before he accomplished that.

It's too bad RMS got sidetracked with Hurd. But, the GNU system now runs with several kernels - the Linux kernel is just the most developed and best known one.

[planckscnst]

There are also operating systems using Linux that have no GNU at all. So it doesn't bother me at all when someone calls it Linux, and I'll continue to call it that myself unless there is additional context needed. Even then, I'd probably just reference specific GNU tools since there are other userspace tools on the system that are also necessary, but are not GNU.

https://www.glaucuslinux.org/

https://www.alpinelinux.org/