> >But when we come to real credit for the Linux achievement we should
> >admit that Linux would not exist without the last category. Let me make
> >that plain: Linux would not exist without Richard Stallman.
>
> And it definitely would not exist without Ritchie, Thompson, Tannenbaum and
> a whole slew of others who remain largely anonymous. And let's not forget
> the old Multics crew who provided a lot of the ideas that went into Unix. So
> maybe we should just all agree that a great number of people deserve credit;
> many more than can easily be named. Besides, if you really want to make
That is an extreme and silly argument.
Neither they, nor James Clerk Maxwell nor Michael Faraday nor Babbage nor
Pythagoras have any direct connection with free software or free operating
systems about 1990. That they have all contributed to something much more
general, the existence of operating systems, or the existence of Unix, is
true but immaterial.
And I'd like to know how how many of Thompson, Ritchie, Mauchly, Turing
et al. have publicly suggested in this list or elsewhere that both their
material support for Linux and the cause of the free operating system
should be recognized, not in any personal way, but by including a symbol
of that cause in the name of the total system.
As I said in the first place, if you are generous you will admit the point
and if you are envious you will invent a thousand silly arguments. You
are entirely predictable.
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