this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2025
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Free software has some glib naming conventions (feddit.uk)
submitted 7 hours ago by flamingos@feddit.uk to c/programmer_humor@programming.dev
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Toot

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[–] dontsayaword@piefed.social 160 points 7 hours ago (4 children)

and the g in gnu stands for gnu

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 40 points 6 hours ago (3 children)

Then what does the g in gnu stand for?

[–] Zink@programming.dev 72 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

you're not gonna believe this...

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 18 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

I’ve got g’news for you…

[–] Zink@programming.dev 1 points 2 hours ago

g'news and g'day to you as well, g'lady!

[–] QBertReynolds@sh.itjust.works 26 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

I think this is sarcasm, but just in case it isn't... GNU is a recursive acronym for "GNU's Not Unix".

[–] whosepoopisonmybuttocks@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 minutes ago

My guess for why they chose the letter g is that gnu can be phonetically the same as just nu, but keeps people from interpreting the name of the project as a dumb spelling of "new".

[–] mech@feddit.org 19 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

Gary

[–] cypherix93@lemmy.world 11 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

as in the inventor of chess, THE Gary Chess?

[–] thethunderwolf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 4 hours ago

rival of George Checkers?

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 5 points 6 hours ago

All the gnus

[–] mech@feddit.org 31 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

Fun fact: The K in GNU stands for Kernel.

[–] Hupf@feddit.org 3 points 1 hour ago

KNURD

[–] Quibblekrust@thelemmy.club 5 points 4 hours ago

I can't believe they didn't put this one in there!

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 hour ago

Yeah, they missed the best part.

GNU stands for GNU's Not Unix, which is a recursive acronym. And, when pronounced properly (like the animal) the G is silent. The entire Linux ecosystem has words that start with G based on an acronym where G essentially comes from nowhere, and isn't actually pronounced.