George
There is yet another distinction you dont seem to be making
The GPL (or GNU General Public License) is not the GNU Tools
Any software may be released under this license (the Linux Kernel for
example)
The license of course does not specify such restrictions. However the
Free Software Foundation has put many many years of work into tools such
as gcc, emacs, ls, grep, the c library etc (all the tools you use) These
are both licensed under the GNU GPL but were created by the GNU Team.
You are correct in thinking a system could be created without these
tools. (I believe Richard has been shown such systems at times (Linux
kernel with no GNU tools) (one such instance a system the samba author
mentioned he demonstrated to Richard)) However the best tools available
are the GNU Tools (heck I put them on any machine I have to work on
suich as solaris boxes) as they have had so many years of dedicated hard
work and effort put into them by the Free Software Foundation.
Give credit where it is due. All current linux distributions (that I am
aware of) use the GNU Tools to some extent.
(remembering of course also the kernel does not dictate policy, the
tools in the system do, and therefore the actual look and feel of a
Linux system is more heavily dictated by the use of the GNU Tools than
it is by the Kernel, the c library is the most prominent example of this
where user level software dictates policy)
See You
Steve
--
sjh@wibble.net http://wibble.net/~sjh/
Look Up In The Sky
Is it a bird? No
Is it a plane? No
Is it a small blue banana?
YES
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