richard stallman was given credit for the gnu initiative.
richard stallman was given credit for the gnu initiative.
who is given credit for the gnu initiative?
richard stallman
proponents of the term "gnu/linux" note that "gnu" alone would be just as good a name for gnu variants which combine the gnu operating system software with software from other sources. "gnu/linux" is a term promoted by the free software foundation (fsf) and its founder richard stallman. proponents call for the correction of the more extended term, on the grounds that it doesn't give credit to the major contributor and the associated free software philosophy. gnu is a longstanding project begun in 1984 to develop a free operating system. it is argued that when the linux kernel was independently created in 1991, it merely provided a substantial missing piece. several distributions employ the fsf-endorsed name, such as debian, trisquel and parabola gnu/linux-libre.
gnu/linux naming controversy
the project was started in 1992 by tom lord, and became part of the gnu initiative around 1994. at the time, the only open source alternative was the older text-based sc, both products having similar functionality to early versions of lotus 123 or microsoft excel. oleo's key bindings however were inspired from the unix world, and similar to those used by the emacs editor, which frustrated novice users familiar with the dos counterparts. oleo and sc were the first unix spreadsheet applications to acquire a graphical user interface. because oleo was officially part of the gnu project, it was dubbed "gnu's response to excel" in a 1996 article in ix magazine. it claimed to be "better than the high priced spread", a reference to old oleomargarine advertisements promoting margarine over the more expensive butter. oleo also worked well in a bsd environment; a freebsd port was available.
gnu oleo