Let me interject for a minute...
There are literally dozens of debates online between the users, about how we are supposed to call Linux. Some are are telling you that you should call it GNU/Linux, most of those doing so jokingly.
In the other corner we have the team that doesn't want to hear the GNU when you talk about their precious operating system.
It is bad for marketing to call it GNU/Linux.
It will confuse the new users.
Why not list every other component from your OS? Make it GNU/Systemd/Xorg/Sddm/.../Linux
In this article I will talk about why I think that the correct name is GNU/Linux and why the arguments provided by people around the internet are bad and finally why it doesn't matter how you call it.
The marketing problem 💸
The problems that the Linux desktop has in terms of marketing and attracting new clientele are vast and numerous, but the name is not one of them. Unlike Windows which sounds too common or Mac OS which sounds like they thought about the name for a whole three seconds, Linux sounds perfect.
It is easy to pronounce, easy to remember and has the perfect mixture of charm and mystery. However I don't think, and no one could convince me that saying GNU/Linux is so scary and intimidating to newcomers. After all that's what they are, newcomers, which means they are here to learn and be persuaded to use the product we are promoting. They are looking for things that Linux does better then other operating systems or problems that are not present in Linux but they struggle with everyday. After you explain this to them, if they are intrigued they will go home and talk about this "Linux thing or GNU or whatever was called" and they won't care about the name because they just care about the benefits of using this new stuff.
However as we all know most people won't change the way they do things unless some major event takes place and almost forces them to. At the end of the day people who are looking to make a change will try Linux whether you call it GNU/Linux or just good ol' simple Linux and the people who don't feel like making a change won't.
If we are going to talk numbers, we might as well take a look at some. First I would like to take a look at the gaming department since the gaming folk here in the Linux world is very passionate and they pride themselves as the FPS masters.
In the last few years the gaming sector has seen huge improvements with the arrival of Proton, DXVK and other technologies that let you play Windows games on Linux. Steam has also invested time and money into this sector, being the maker of Proton, a layer that emulates certain Windows libraries to make a game compatible. The Steam application for Linux has a tight integration with Proton so you can be a button click away from playing the games that you download through their platform.
And yet the Linux market share can't even crack 1%. This is due to a lot of factors, but the name of the operating system is not at the top of the list. No matter how you construct your argument, Windows is not number one because it's named Windows and Linux can't get a 1% market share just because some people insist on using the proper name of GNU/Linux. The low share problem is not specific to the gaming sector though as we will see in he next graphic.
In the global perspective, when we count the desktop users, Linux accounts for 1.82% of the market share which is both disappointing and also not related to naming.
"Ha! He didn't talk about the servers"
Yeah Linux is the king of the server world. All super computers in the world run Linux, the cloud runs on Linux. However the problems that arise in the desktop space are different since the average user that uses Linux for media consumption or for work or gaming doesn't operate a server cluster or a super computer.
The problems of Linux are numerous and I will write about them in a separate article and I will also talk about why I think there is such a huge discrepancy between the desktop market share of Linux versus the server one.
It will confuse new users❓😕
As I already explained, the user that wants to change his operating system, which by the way is a huge thing in our day and age, won't be put off by the hearing of GNU/Linux. He may question why you are calling Linux like that, but this something that can be answered in just a couple of sentences about the history of the two projects. It might pique his interest or he may forget everything you just said, but I can't imagine someone running away after hearing a couple of sentences worth of history.
My advise to those that preach the GNU is: keep it simple, keep it short. Just tell the interested people why you chose to put the GNU before and also tell them that most people call it just Linux and that's fine.
Why not call it GNU/Systemd/Xorg/Sddm/.../Linux
Because of the historical value of the name. At the beginning there was GNU and it didn't work because it was missing one very important component, the kernel which was Linux. It wasn't missing the systemd init system, or the xorg display server. No. The operating system was fully functional with GNU + Linux. All the other stuff we added after was just extra; things that are more modern and are more suited to the modern workflow and necessities.
Cars, for example have evolved a lot since their conception, but they are still cars not car/diesel engine/cruise control/4x4/... Linux is just a car that was modernised, it was changed to be be used by the modern user that doesn't type at a terminal all day and is perfectly happy seeing just some ASCII characters pop up on his screen. The modern user wants to see movies, play games, make presentations, write blog posts on Publis0x, those things necessitate modern components, but they would have never existed without the work done by original two GNU and Linux.
My opinion
Well all this article has been my opinion, but I tried to defend the GNU/Linux name since I know the historical importance and I wanted to give credit to both projects equally, yet my view about this thing is that you should know some history, you should know about GNU and then call the operating system whatever you want. The naming is not that big of a deal when you have other problems to solve and other cool things to brag about. I call it Linux, as you might have seen, because it is easier, it is always easier to trim the name. In my projects however, if I mention it I do write down the more official name of GNU/Linux, as it not only is the correct name but also adds a touch of professionalism to the whole thing.
