What is the difference between gnu/linux and linux

The difference between "gnu/linux" and linux: 1. "gnu/linux" is an operating system, while linux is a kernel; 2. "gnu/linux" includes the system kernel, compiler, The entire ecosystem of editors, operating systems, applications, etc., and Linux is the kernel of the "gnu/linux" operating system.

#The operating environment of this tutorial: linux7.3 system, Dell G3 computer.

What is the difference between gnu/linux and linux

Linux is just a kernel, you can download this source code from the official website; while GNU/Linux is an operating system, similar to Windows operation System, including the entire ecosystem including the Linux kernel, compilers, editors, desktop systems, and applications.

What is GNU?

GNU is an operating system. GNU is the recursive abbreviation of "GNU's Not Unix". Its correct pronunciation is: GNU, rather than directly reading G-N-U or new. The GNU operating system is a free software operating system similar to Windows, including the entire ecosystem: operating system kernel, compilers, debuggers and other development tools, office software, desktop games and other free software.

GNU Project and Free Software

The GNU project was launched in 1984, led by Richard Stallman, who wrote Emacs, the GNU C compiler, and GNU The famous hacker of the C debugger. The goal of the GNU Project is to build a Unix-like operating system, including kernel, compiler, editor, spreadsheet, email software, graphical interface, application library, game software, etc. In other words, it is to build an operating system similar to the Windows ecosystem (Windows had not yet come out at that time) to facilitate computer users and developers to use computers conveniently and happily.

The GNU project is a huge project: developing a complete operating system, including kernel, compiler, debugger, development tools, application software, etc., cannot be completed by one person or a team, so in 1985 In October of that year, it became the Free Software Foundation (FSF), which was initially used to raise funds for GNU.

Why initiate this project? Simply because almost all software on computers at the time was proprietary software. What is proprietary software? It is software whose use, modification, and distribution are restricted. The author owns the copyright of this software. It is not open source and only releases compiled binary versions of the program. Generally, commercial companies prefer proprietary software. However, this is not a good thing for the development of the industry. Only by sharing technology and mutual iterative development can we better promote the growth of the software industry.

The counterpart to proprietary software is free software. Free software can be used, copied, researched, modified and distributed freely without restrictions. Yes, you read that right, it’s so free! It requires open source code. Anyone can obtain the code, modify it, and then re-release and distribute it in other versions. What needs to be noted here is that free software does not mean freeware. It can also be bought and sold, such as Linux operating system CDs. The freedom here is a matter of rights, not price. Free software has four basic freedoms:

Freedom to use: you can obtain the source code for free, use

Freedom to learn: you have the right to study how to operate and implement it

Freedom to modify: you can improve the software and publish improvements

Freedom to publish: redistribute your modified version

GNU project requirements: GNU operating system, including the kernel The entire set of software must be composed of free software.

GNU and GNU Linux

The goal of the GNU project is to build an operating system ecosystem including the kernel. In the early days, most free software projects, with the support of the Free Software Foundation, aimed to accomplish a specific task. For example, Donald Knuth wrote a text typesetting software (TeX); Bob Scheifler developed a window system (X Window); Richard Stallman developed a C compiler and debugger. The GNU project was also developing an operating system kernel called hurd, but the development was not very smooth. Later, Linus Torvalds wrote a Unix-like kernel (Linux). In this way, the components of the entire operating system were complete, and the GNU/Linux operating system was released. .

Recommended learning: Linux video tutorial

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