Re: Linux, the final decision

From: Ed Murphy (emurphy42_at_socal.rr.com)
Date: 02/01/04 

Date: Sun, 01 Feb 2004 05:55:24 GMT

On Sat, 31 Jan 2004 18:34:10 -0800, Kadaitcha Man wrote:

>> Linux does *not* work out of the box. You take a Linux kernel
>> (any kernel), compressed, uncompiled, and make it work without
>> any utilities.
>
> There's the kernel distinction again. So, what is the correct term for
> what I'm talking about? Is the whole package, including the GUIs, the OS
> or not? Is it something else? What is the collective term for all the
> things I have installed that are currently called Xandros?

"The kernel" is well-defined.

The rough test for "is it part of the OS" is "will the system utterly fail
without it". The kernel obviously passes this test, as do various other
bits. The GUI is generally considered to fail this test, since you can
turn it off and still run non-GUI programs. Not sure about the gray areas.

The collective term is "the distro" or "the system", I guess. When in
doubt, use whatever terms you know *are* correct, even if their usage
in that situation seems clumsy; better to be clumsy than to be wrong.