Stallman still insists that it is GNU/Linux today, while Linus have been pretty adamant that it is only Linux since 1991...
GNU (Gnu is Not Unix) was founded by Richard Stallman (late 1970's early 1980's) in answer to propriety Unix, but they never could get a kernel going for over 10 years, but they have created a mass of Open Source apps that would run on Unix.
Enter Linus Trovalds in 1991 and the first Linux kernel. As a student in Finland he also was looking for an alternative to the closed sourced Minix, and thus whipped up his own kernel and released it as open source on the internet.
Please note at this point that there were no ties between GNU and Linus, and if I recall the history correctly he did not even know of GNU.
Now this was wonderful, a working kernel and, the public discovered, there were a lot of GNU apps available already to make Linux usable. Stallman immediately jumped on the opportunity to proclaim victory for the GNU team, only to receive a cold shoulder from Linus, and rightly so I would think.
Instead of just accepting that he was outdone, Stallman insisted that the two marry and then create a GNU/Linux (HUGE ego problem here) but Linus just refused and never used the term "GNU" in conjunction with Linux ever. Listening to Stallman harping about this issue even today still (listen to any of his FOSS speeches and you will be bound to hear the issue raised) makes one wonder why exactly he is so adamant that he be given glory next to Linus (Stallman/Linus ie. GNU/Linux).
The GNU foundation is stuttering and only a few people still actively participate in the foundation, with most people just releasing software under the GPL v.1/2/3 and not under a "foundation" name like was Stallman's dream (for instance KDE instead of GNU/KDE) and thus, although being one of the important people in the FOSS struggle, he has a very limited and some will argue even negligible role to play today.
Since the 80's he has done very little but hurt the public image of Linux as a whole, read the fiasco regarding the GPL v.3 and Linus' remarks regarding it. It was so absurd that Linus even withdrew from the committee that planned the GPL v.3.
You almost get the idea that Stallman is looking for the attention and limelight that never befell him, almost like trying to squeeze his way onto the podium next to other FOSS big names, and that is why I said in my last statement that the whole attitude of Stallman has put me off for years.
If you rub shoulders with the other players in the FOSS community you will see that he has very little reputation left with most of them, and this is bothering me, when does one realize that you have to call it quits before you are ostracised by the whole FOSS community.
Look on YouTube where Linus and the FOSS community made a noble gesture by handing him an award recognising him as one of the most valuable people in the FOSS movement back then, only to have a whole speech dedicated to why GNU this and GNU that and Linus this and Linus that. Linus was so frustrated (holding his pose) that he began playing with his daughter on stage.
He is but millimetres away from becoming a big time loser, just because he cannot accept that someone else beat him to the gun after he struggled over 10 years to get something running that a lone student did in a couple of months.
//end GNU - Linux history 101
Way off topic, but interesting none the less I believe.
