[mqus]

Re your last paragraphs: I think RMS really meant just the Linux kernel when he wrote that(the topic is drivers, after all), not GNU/Linux, the OS or GNU/Linux, "the system". So it can be argued that he isn't really contradicting himself

[yjftsjthsd-h]

Agreed. As a practical example, Alpine Linux isn't a GNU/Linux OS, but it does use Linux+Xorg graphics drivers.