General: GNU? Isn't That Some Kind of Monkey?

No, it’s really not. GNU stands for “GNU’s not Unix” - a common theme in open source naming systems. On my trip around the web today, I came across Stephen Fry talking about GNU/Linux. You can watch this video on the GNU website, marking the 25th anniversary of GNU/Linux. There is also an article worth reading on the GNU website, which explains what GNU is and its relationship to Linux. As an avid Linux user, even I haven’t paid that much attention to the history of Linux - putting it all down to Mr Torvalds himself. To quote the site:

Whether you use GNU/Linux or not, please don’t confuse the public by using the name “Linux” ambiguously. Linux is the kernel, one of the essential major components of the system. The system as a whole is basically the GNU system, with Linux added. When you’re talking about this combination, please call it “GNU/Linux”.

I don’t know about you, but that seems like a lot of hassle to write everytime I mention Linux and will be about as popular as writing “perform a Google search” instead of using Google as a verb - but is interesting to read about the history of Linux. On one hand, I agree with the principles of freedom, but on the other hand it can be a PITA that is unrealistic to bond with the rest of the community, and Linux users feel a little like outsiders as it is. Take MP3 as an example - it is not an open standard and in theory a license fee must be paid. For this very reason almost all Linux, or should I say GNU/Linux distributions, don’t come with support for MP3 playback. Instead, they promote the use of open standards such as OGG or FLAC. Does my N95 support those formats? No. Do I download podcasts in MP3 format? Yes. By imposing their “freedom”, they are actually limiting my choices.

I guess the issue here, is why aren’t open standards being adopted in the first place. I was talking with my good friend Rich, the developer of Trusted Reviews and I suggested that what would actually push things forward would be a monopoly in certain areas. If everyone used a single web browser that was mutli-platform and rendered identically on the same on every machine, wouldn’t our lives be so much easier? Even a standard set of multi-platform fonts would be a good move forward. So what about Google Chrome - is that we’ve been waiting for? (you can tell I posted this last week )

Chrome made me wonder - is it possible to have a monopoly if the product is open source? After all, who owns an open source product? The community does. I think Google Chrome is a great idea, but if it’s Google branded, there will be resistance to use it, and the only way such a rapid re-think would work is if everyone adopted it. It’ll be interesting to see what the industry response to Google’s half-announcement will be.

Originally posted on ITPro.