Wikipedia:Peer review/Linux/archive1

Linux

I would like to know what we need to do to get this to FA status. - Ta bu shi da yu 04:53, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)

• It looks good overall; plenty of content and it looks relatively well organized. Just a couple of minor points:
  • In the "Applications" section, the first paragraph and the first sentence in the second paragraph seem disconnected with the remainder of the section. Were those two paragraphs meant to be down in the "Usability and market share" section?
  • I've often heard the mildly humorous quote that Linux is a recursive acronym that means: "Linux is not UNIX". But I didn't see that mentioned in the page. Is there any history on the origin of that quote? RJH 15:43, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)

• As far I as know, 'Linux' comes from the authors name, Linus Torvalds. Maybe you are confusing it with GNU (GNU's Not Unix) -- 213.67.47.131 27 Jun 2005 (UTC)

• Could be just a joke - sounds like a backronym. - Ta bu shi da yu 00:28, 27 Jun 2005 (UTC)
• 'Linux' is indeed named after Linus Torvalds. See for example [1]. The 'x' comes from Unix (as in Minix, Xenix, Interix, HP-UX, Mt. Xinu, AIX, etc.). 'Linux is not Unix', as an explanation of the name, is almost certainly based on confusion with 'GNU's Not Unix'. I had never encountered the phrase in this context until I read it here (and I've been using Linux since 1999). The phrase 'Linux is not Unix' is however often used as a statement of fact, to explain that Linux isn't based on Unix source code, unlike for example FreeBSD. —PrologFan {Talk} 22:11, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

• Either way it's a very common expression in the Linux community. If you do a google search for "Linux is not UNIX" (in quotes) you get about 6000 hits. It's also listed on the wikipedia's list of backronyms page. I've even had it quoted to my face on more than one occasion. Some think it may have been Linus' attempt to deny the language was named for him. Others that it was just be an anonymous play on the old GNU backronym. But I do think that the common usage of this expression means that it needs to be covered somehow. Thanks. :) — RJH 28 June 2005 14:20 (UTC)
  • It's not intentional, but the closely related GNU is intentionally "GNU's Not Unix." The phrase is merely an extension of the same joke. Nifboy 8 July 2005 22:05 (UTC)
• I did a rewrite of the Windows Emulation section. I haven't actually read the rest of the article, but it seems like it could use some accuracy as well as copyediting to make it more readable by a non-technical audience. Scott Ritchie 02:00, 10 July 2005 (UTC)
• It's a bit obvious that the author here is very friendly to Linux. --malathion ^talk 12:19, 21 July 2005 (UTC)