Yes, I know GNU means 'GNU is Not Unix', but what's that GNU?? I mean, if I substitute GNU in its own definition, I get 'GNU is Not Unix is Not Unix', and I can do it again infinite times. It could sound quite stupid as a question, but I really can't understand...
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May be you should ask about where the letter 'G' comes from. e.g. why it is not called FNU or PNU (this will have the same meaning maybe :/). – user37421 Jan 19 '17 at 22:05
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G is the first letter that put in front of "-NU" for "not UNIX", made a word with a complete sense. A-NU, B-NU, C-NU, ..., G-NU -> real word! – Giuseppe Scrivano Mar 14 '17 at 12:06
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It's a recursive acronym; just like PHP stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor, or, my favourite, GNU HURD, which stands for HIRD of Unix-Replacing Daemons, where HIRD stands for HURD of Interfaces Reflecting Depth.
Thomas O
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Recently I was at the lecture of Richard Stallman. He said that GNU is a recursive definition of GNU - Gnu is Not Unix.
Glorfindel
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khachik
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I've heard him say the same thing at a conference in NY several years ago. – Icarus Aug 26 '11 at 19:26
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It's a brand name. See the Wikipedia page about it.
Quentin
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1It happens a lot. PHP originally stood for personal home page. Now is stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor, again the self referential acronym (there are lots like going to the dictionary to look up recursion and the entry simply says See Recursion) where in reality it just means PHP. Names like this are interesting. Forth was the fourth language Charles Moore had written, but at the time Forth only had 5 letter variable so he dropped the u. – PurplePilot Nov 28 '10 at 17:21