this post was submitted on 08 May 2026
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Well yeah only 3% go to the kernel. Most of the rest seems to be going to everything else required for a functional OS. The kernel alone is fairly useless.
Any essential part is usually fairly useless without the other parts
So what you're saying is it's not Linux, it's somethingElse/Linux ?
I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're refering to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX. Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called Linux, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project. There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called Linux distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux!
You see, that's just inaccurate. GNU/Linux is not equivalent to GNU+Linux. That would be addition; this is division. The bigger Linux gets, the smaller GNU/Linux becomes.
That's why they've developed GNU/Hurd. Hurd is unlikely to ever amount to much, meaning that GNU/Hurd will never evaluate to a small value. And that is cold, hard mathematical fact.
Hurd rescently became an option with Gentoo Linux (experimentally). Debian offers it too.
As does Arch AFAIK. It's still very nice, thought.
GNU/Hurd will rise as soon as the abusers of that penguin abomination will realise they have been tricked by big tech. The free future is Gnu/Hurd and 9Front.
Its software packages required to build functional GNU/Linux operating systems. Yes.
Normal people just call all of this "linux" for simplicity, but annoying people keep feeling a need to point out the distinction.
Right. And that somethingElse is probably not Unix
Or as I like to call it, somethingElse+Linux
GNU stands for "GNU's not Unix", which itself means 'GNU's not Unix not Unix'. If two nots logically undo each other then you might say
GNU is Unixbut in programming you would likly apply one assignment at a time: expressed as GNU = ! Unix = Unix or simply GNU's not Unix.Seems to be going to Corporate Operations, Event Services, Project Support. But little goes to Linux kernel, and project infrastructure.
What do you think Project Support is?
Well they could do a far better job of getting across what the expenses are. They may as well say 100% went to things relevant to the linux foundation.
Yeah, the money's "going to" two of the least funded categories in the chart. 🙄