GNU/Linux

Because Linus Torvalds developed Linux using the already existing Free Software-based GNU-libraries, some adherents of the Free Software Foundation insist that Linux should always be called GNU/Linux.

-Michel Bauwens, 2007

As Richard Stallman pointed out in his piece proposing this naming convention, Torvalds never set out to create an OS. As his release announcement for Linux explicitly says, his project was to develop a simple kernel, under the GNU GPL license, to quickly enable free distribution of the pre-existing GNU OS. Which lacked a finished GPL kernel of its own, although in practice, it could already be used with proprietary UNIX kernels. Obviously Torvalds succeeded, and the kernel that references his name is now widely used with the most common variants of the GNU OS; Debian, Fedora, OpeSuse, Arch, and their many derivatives, like Ubuntu and Red Hat.

However, GNU can be used with other kernels and sometimes is. For example the Debian/FreeBSD distribution using one of the BSD-derived kernels, or on an experimental basis for now, the GNU Project's more technically ambitious HURD kernel. Similarly the Linux kernel can be used with other OS, like ChromiumOS/Linux - the basis of Goggle's Chrome OS - and Android/Linux - the mobile OS widely known as Android (terms my own, following the logic of the GNU/Linux convention). Chrome OS replaces most of the GNU OS with other components, many of them proprietary, and Android uses no GNU at all.

As the examples above demonstrate, the Linux kernel and the family of OS commonly referred to a "Linux" are two related but quite different things, and using the same term for both is confusing and best avoided. GNU/Linux or Android/Linux are clunky formulations, and far from ideal, but they make this distinction clear, and serve as conversation starters that can lead people to a clearer understanding of the technical reality.

- Danyl Strype, 2026