this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2025
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[–] dontsayaword@piefed.social 179 points 9 hours ago (5 children)

and the g in gnu stands for gnu

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 44 points 9 hours ago (5 children)

Then what does the g in gnu stand for?

[–] Zink@programming.dev 78 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

you're not gonna believe this...

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 20 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

I’ve got g’news for you…

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[–] QBertReynolds@sh.itjust.works 28 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

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

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[–] mech@feddit.org 20 points 8 hours ago (2 children)
[–] cypherix93@lemmy.world 10 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

as in the inventor of chess, THE Gary Chess?

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[–] mech@feddit.org 36 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

Fun fact: The K in GNU stands for Kernel.

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[–] zqwzzle@lemmy.ca 61 points 9 hours ago (5 children)

Is it pronounced gnu or jnu?

[–] slothrop@lemmy.ca 63 points 9 hours ago (2 children)
[–] zqwzzle@lemmy.ca 28 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

Jnu enough to stoke an ancient flame war for my personal entertainment.

[–] slothrop@lemmy.ca 13 points 8 hours ago (1 children)
[–] zqwzzle@lemmy.ca 9 points 8 hours ago

What can I say, I’m a candidate for !dull_mens_club@lemmy.world

[–] Damage@feddit.it 9 points 8 hours ago

You must have jift for that

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[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 7 hours ago

Unironic answer, the "g" is pronounced, but obviously like the g in give or great, not like j.

[–] M33@sharkey.world 7 points 9 hours ago (4 children)
[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 23 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

The G in GIF stands for Graphical, but the G in Graphical stands for Graham Crackers, the G in Graham Crackers stands for God, and the G in God stands for Gnu. From there it's Gnus all the way down. Also, God pronounces "Graphical" with a soft G as in Jod.

[–] ieGod@lemmy.zip 9 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Also, God pronounces “Graphical” with a soft G as in Jod.

🤣

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[–] kubica@fedia.io 44 points 8 hours ago

A topic with a a lot of gnuances.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 37 points 9 hours ago

gnusnotuniximagemanipulationtoolkitlibraryobject

[–] Masterkraft0r@discuss.tchncs.de 37 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

and the g in gnu also stands for gnu

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[–] velindora@lemmy.cafe 29 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

I wish we knew some new gnu jokes.

[–] somegeek@programming.dev 7 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I wish we gknew some gnew gnu jokes.

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[–] DupaCycki@lemmy.world 28 points 6 hours ago (5 children)

In case you were wondering the 'w' in 'wine' stands for 'wine', and the full acronym is 'Wine Is Not an Emulator'. What do you think the 'w' in 'Wine Is Not an Emulator' stands for?

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 14 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

I once tried to play "PHP" in Scrabble and argued that it should be infinite points.

The opponent didn't agree.

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[–] TheJesusaurus@sh.itjust.works 21 points 9 hours ago

Never thought about it and I'm gonna go back to not thinking about it

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 19 points 7 hours ago (3 children)

I remember a time when almost every category of tool had something named "Yet Another [Thing]" because there were already so many options to choose from when they decided to make their own.

[–] Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca 11 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Yet Another Better Barrel Attempt (YABBA)

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[–] myotheraccount@lemmy.world 18 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

Does the g in gspot also stand for gnu?

[–] 3abas@lemmy.world 21 points 2 hours ago

Believe it or not, yes.

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[–] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 17 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (17 children)

And this really exposes a major challenge with FOSS.

Names have meaning - it's why Office is called Office.

This gnu naming isn't much of an issue, because this is stuff only technical folks handle. But if we want end-users to embrace things, we need meaningful names - meaningful to them.

Whenever I tell my friends or family to install Jellyfin so they can access my media, the look on their face says it all.

MediaMonkey - alright, I get it (yea, not FOSS)

Plex? OK, if someone then says "think MultiPlex Theaters", you get it. (Also not FOSS)

Jellyfin? What is that? Jam on a sharkfin?

These work really well:

Resilio SYNC (Yeah, not FOSS, but the name makes sense)

SyncThing (FOSS)

FolderSync (not FOSS)

Notice a trend here?

I have a printed spreadsheet for all the software I use - if I haven't touched a service for a couple months, I'll forget the meaningless name.

[–] BlueKey@fedia.io 35 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Counterarguments:

  • Chrome
  • Edge
  • Sky
  • Adobe Acrobat
  • Outlook

All wellknown programs or services where the name has no relation to the purpose.

[–] rooroo@feddit.org 10 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

These are all major commercial services that can afford advertising or are already more than established. Most FOSS doesn’t have these perks.

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[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 10 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

You went on all this rant and forgot the og?

collapsed inline media

[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 8 points 8 hours ago (3 children)

GIMP is an acronym for what's arguably the most descriptive name possible: GNU Image Manipulation Program.

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[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

Compared to how Microsoft names things, FOSS naming is harmless on average.

Think of them naming the gaming app on Windows PCs "Xbox", or the distinction between "VS Code" and "Visual Studio Code", or "edit" (msedit), etc etc

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[–] db2@lemmy.world 14 points 9 hours ago (1 children)
[–] lastweakness@lemmy.world 7 points 7 hours ago

Which is the actual GNU C Library

[–] rockerface@lemmy.cafe 11 points 9 hours ago

You've been gnomed

[–] Kojichan@lemmy.world 9 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

As a former Windows user, it still is taking a long time to wrap my head around all this new terminology, functions, and systems.

This doesn't help. XD

[–] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 14 points 2 hours ago

unless you absolutely must, don't think about it

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[–] Jean_Mich_Much@jlai.lu 9 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

So, what does the g in musl stand for ? Wait...

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[–] RickyRigatoni@retrolemmy.com 7 points 5 hours ago

I thought it was called gnome because little gnomes go into your computer to draw the windows

[–] calcopiritus@lemmy.world 7 points 9 hours ago

Not to be confused with glibc. Where the g does actually stand for gnu.

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