Eu recomendo ler o artigo Linux e o Sistema GNU & O Projeto GNU para ter uma idéia da contribuição do GNU.
A seguir, algumas citações do Linux e do Sistema GNU :
- Visão geral da contribuição:
If we tried to measure the GNU Project's contribution in this way, what would we conclude? One CD-ROM vendor found that in their “Linux distribution”, GNU software was the largest single contingent, around 28% of the total source code, and this included some of the essential major components without which there could be no system. Linux itself was about 3%. (The proportions in 2008 are similar: in the “main” repository of gNewSense, Linux is 1.5% and GNU packages are 15%.) So if you were going to pick a name for the system based on who wrote the programs in the system, the most appropriate single choice would be “GNU”.
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Esclarecimento sobre meta:
But that is not the deepest way to consider the question. The GNU Project was not, is not, a project to develop specific software packages. It was not a project to develop a C compiler, although we did that. It was not a project to develop a text editor, although we developed one. The GNU Project set out to develop a complete free Unix-like system: GNU.
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Declaração de componentes essenciais:
Many people have made major contributions to the free software in the system, and they all deserve credit for their software. But the reason it is an integrated system—and not just a collection of useful programs—is because the GNU Project set out to make it one. We made a list of the programs needed to make a complete free system, and we systematically found, wrote, or found people to write everything on the list. We wrote essential but unexciting (1) components because you can't have a system without them. Some of our system components, the programming tools, became popular on their own among programmers, but we wrote many components that are not tools (2). We even developed a chess game, GNU Chess, because a complete system needs games too.
Do artigo da Wikipedia sobre Componentes GNU > :
The system's basic components include the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), the GNU C library (glibc), and GNU Core Utilities (coreutils),[8] but also the GNU Debugger (GDB), GNU Binary Utilities (binutils),[38] the GNU Bash shell[33][39] and the GNOME desktop environment.[40]
Visite também Lista de pacotes GNU > Sistema básico da wikipedia.
Assim, os principais componentes podem ser listados como:
- GNU Binutils
- GNU Coreutils
- Biblioteca GNU C
- Coleção de compiladores GNU (originalmente chamada: GNU C Compiler)
- tar GNU
- GNU Bash
- GNOME
E muito mais.
Além disso, de Perguntas frequentes :
Linus Torvalds was partly influenced by a speech about GNU in Finland in 1990. It's possible that even without this influence he might have written a Unix-like kernel, but it probably would not have been free software. Linux became free in 1992 when Linus rereleased it under the GNU GPL.
Observe também que eles não querem nos pedir para chamar o GNU / Linux apenas por causa de sua maior contribuição única para o sistema, mas o mais importante é introduzir, preservar e incentivar o idealismo & objetivo do GNU, que é explicado em Por que o GNU / Linux?