cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/5592397
Forty years ago, Richard Stallman announced the plan to develop the GNU operating system, which would be entirely composed of free software. The existence of a free operating system would enable people to operate their computers in freedom, throwing off the power of the developers of nonfree software. The GNU Project has also built the global free software movement.
Arguably neither GNU utils or the Linux kernel are OSs since they don’t operate anything on their own. They more accurately parts of system. I think distros are more accurately called OSs