> Picking a small set of gurus to credit is unlikely to be a fair or even an > illustrative process unless the constutuent enabling technologies are all > listed. Stallman's work is critically dependent upon von Neumann's in > order to run and to have any portability at all. Similarly, foundation > architecture for software was needed before unix or GNU could exist. > Stallman's work is significant, but far from being due the lion's share of > credit. Without GNU, there would be no Linux. Without Linux, we would all be using the GNU operating system (with a Hurd/Mach as the kernel). It seems to me that, if we call the system by only one name, it should be GNU. However, we need to give Linux some credit. Linus Torvalds was a genius social engineer. He knew how to get people to work on his software for him. He told them all they were working on "Linux". Of course, since GNU was already pretty well established among advanced users, the developers would say "Hey, I'm working on writing a new application called 'Linux'", in the same way someone today would say "I'm working on KDE". They took GNU for granted. After a while, they just started lazily calling the whole OS Linux, and the name stuck. It's sort of reminds me of the people who will say they are running the Ubuntu Operating System... > > The name TCLUG is a KISS result. Nobody would use or try to pronounce an > acronym that had even 20% of the key contributors included. The acronym > matters most for newbies who do not know of, or care about, the details of > evolution because they are struggling to get started and need a KISS > mnemonic to recognize a starting point and locate help or resources. GNU > doesn't run alone or have an ordered hieararchy, but Linux does run and > does have a somewhat ordered hierarchy which can introduce one to GNU > rather quickly down the tree. Yup. You're absolutely right. Let's go with KISS. We'll be the TC-GUG from now on. I can assure you that "GUG" will probably not even be comprehensible to most GNU fans, but the KISS philosophy is always better. Hey, let's not stop there! Lets change it from TC-GUG to TC-GG. It should be obvious that we actually use the software our group is promoting; we don't have to explicitly say that we are users. We may even go as far as saying T-GG by making "Twin Cities" into "Twincities". P.S. - With Hurd and Mach, GNU does run alone. Linux does not.