Re: [LUG] I can't believe it!

[Rob Beard <rob@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Grant Sewell wrote:
> On Thu, 13 Dec 2007 00:08:54 +0000
> Rob Beard wrote:
> 
>> Hi folks,
>>
>> My other half was doing a crossword, one of the questions was a 3 letter 
>> word and the clue was wildebeest.  The answer was GNU.  I thought, hang 
>> on, GNU means GNU's Not Unix, and it's the foundation for a complete 
>> operating system, what has that got to do with wildebeest?
>>
>> I did a Google search for GNU + wildebeest and found that a GNU is 
>> actually a type of wildebeest.  That'll explain the GNU logo then (and 
>> GNU Herd).  You can see what I'm on about here: 
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildebeest
>>
>> I'm not sure if any of you folks knew this.  I always used to think, how 
>> did they come up with GNU's Not Unix, I mean how did they think of GNU?
>>
>> As you can probably guess, I didn't know a GNU was a wildebeest.  I 
>> dunno, been using GNU/Linux on and off for about 15 years or so and I've 
>> never know this in all that time.  I'll hang my head in shame!
>>
>> Rob
>>
> Oh Rob, Rob, Rob... so you should.  Go read "Free as in Freedom" 
> (http://www.oreilly.com/openbook/freedom/) and you'll learn (IIRC) that originally 
> Monsieur Stallman wanted to have a natural-English 4 letter word ending in INU 
> ("Is Not Unix") but found that (at the time) no such word existed, so he settled 
> for GNU, standing for "GNU's Not Unix".
> 
> Quite apart from that it is (IMO) a damn good read.
> 
> Grant. :)
> 

I will do.  After the busy week I've had I could do with some relaxing 
reading over Christmas.

Rob


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