Explanation for newbies: The GNU/Linux copypasta is an argument made by Richard Stallman that the operating system should be referred to as “GNU/Linux” or “GNU+Linux” because linux is just the kernel and what makes it useful are the various GNU programs and libraries like coreutils and glibc.
Alpine Linux is a linux distribution that ships without any GNU software (though it can be installed using the package manager).
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“I use Linux as my operating system,” I state proudly to the unkempt, bearded man. He swivels around in his desk chair with a devilish gleam in his eyes, ready to mansplain with extreme precision. “Actually”, he says with a grin, "Linux is just the kernel. You use GNU+Linux!’ I don’t miss a beat and reply with a smirk, “I use Alpine, a distro that doesn’t include the GNU Coreutils, or any other GNU code. It’s Linux, but it’s not GNU+Linux.”
The smile quickly drops from the man’s face. His body begins convulsing and he foams at the mouth and drops to the floor with a sickly thud. As he writhes around he screams “I-IT WAS COMPILED WITH GCC! THAT MEANS IT’S STILL GNU!” Coolly, I reply “If windows were compiled with GCC, would that make it GNU?” I interrupt his response with “-and work is being made on the kernel to make it more compiler-agnostic. Even if you were correct, you won’t be for long.”
With a sickly wheeze, the last of the man’s life is ejected from his body. He lies on the floor, cold and limp. I’ve womansplained him to death.
I love that you went through the effort of editing Stallman in and the text on the back, hope you’ve done the honors in GIMP (Great Intellectual Meme Picture)
Yeah, of course! Kind of goes against the point of the meme but oh well.
I love that alternative copypasta where the alpine user corrects the gnu/linux guy and he just fucking dies.
“I’ve womansplained him to death”
I once saw someone in the irc channel jokingly refer to Alpine as Alpine linux pine. Now when I goto the website, all my mind reads is Alpine Linux Pine Linux…
I was going to say you have to start use Alpine with the Pine email client. But IIRC, Pine stopped development, and a new project called Alpine took over.
So, now use Alpine to run Alpine and start calling it Alpine Linux Alpine Linux.
I’d just like to interject for a moment. What you’re referring to as Alpine Linux Alpine Linux is in fact Pine’s fork, Alpine / Alpine Linux Pine Linux, or as I’ve taken to calling it, Pine’s Alpine plus Alpine Linux Pine Linux. Alpine Linux Pine Linux is an operating system unto itself, and Pine’s Alpine fork is another free component of a fully functioning Alpine Linux Pine Linux system.
was Stallman really the author of that copypasta? I mean it’s funny to pretend he did, but does anyone know for sure?
No, it was a user on the FreeNode IRC in #Linux, not Stallman
And that’s why Alpine should be considered harmful. Copyleft is important, folks! musl and BusyBox are just ways to facilitate even more enshittification, Tivoization, and other corporate abuse than the GPLv2 kernel already does by itself.
I agree with copyleft and the fsf’s core ideas, but also understand some people just don’t like gnu, due to just not wanting to call it “gnu/linux” and stallman being kind of weird
Huh, good point, I never stopped to consider what licenses are behind Alpine.
I agree with your point that pushover licenses should not be the way forward (I personally license all of my major projects with GPLv3 only), but I’ll still keep using alpine because I like it from a technical standpoint.
alpine is technically cool with how lightweight it is but it being non gnu is a big bummer really
Based and GNU pilled
This is why I license my work under GPLv3+ (not going to link my codeberg/GH because I’m not fucking stupid)
I understand what argument could be made against musl, which is licensed under MIT, but what’s wrong with GPLv2?
I remember Torvald saying something about not wanting to change the kernel’s license to GPLv3, but I’ve never understood the differences
GPLv3 is resistant to Tivoization. GPLv2 is not.
TL;DR: “Tivoization” means giving you the source code for the firmware of a particular device, but using DRM to prevent you from actually being able to make changes and run that modified code on the device.
Considering that the entire Free Software movement started because Xerox wouldn’t let RMS improve the MIT AI Lab’s laser printer, you should be able to see how DRM clearly runs counter to everything the GPL is trying to accomplish.
Alpine should be considered harmful
that’s a rather anti-liberal sentiment coming from what one would assume to be a mostly pro-liberal open source community.
It’s just a figure of speech. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Considered_harmful
Well, you’d still be using Linux
