[Gllug] GLLUG ->Gnu Linux London Users Group

[Nix]

On Sun, 17 Feb 2002, Dan Kolb moaned:
> On Sunday 17 Feb 2002 21:07 pm, E. R. Vaughan wrote:
>> RMS has never said the Linux system is called GNU/Linux. People who think
>> he does do not listen/read carefully. He *asks* people to call it that for
>> PR, as to quote him from last tuesday "we really need it". The point is,
>> GNU needs publicising. Also, Linux can run without X-Windows, it can't
>> compile without gcc.
> 
> I think someone did get it to compile without gcc, although they had to 
> modify the source code considerably.

Assuming you mean the kernel, I very much doubt it. The modifications
would be damn nearly a rewrite, and the resulting system would likely be
very unstable. You don't just have to strip out use of GCC extensions
(and often replace them with other extensions for e.g. assembler) ---
you also have to identify places where the kernel is written in the
expectation that GCC will optimize (or not optimize) it in particular
ways, and fix that.

The Linux kernel isn't very portable between *versions* of GCC, because
the optimizer changes. The chance of it building atop another compiler
is very low.

If someone has done it, I'd like to know; his degree of dedication to a
pointless cause deserves reward, or possibly psychiatric treatment. :)

>                                      And just because it requires GCC to 
> compile, that doesn't mean it should automatically be called GNU/Linux.

Absolutely so (but I know of nobody other than the original poster who's
suggested this. RMS certainly hasn't. It'd be a completely silly idea.)

-- 
`The classical music makes him feel tranquil and loved so he performs
 regularly. What a life for a guy. He gets to make love every day with
 an artificial cow.'

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