There Is Not Nearly As Much GNU In GNU/Linux As You Might Believe

By Ricky on June 2nd, 2011

Ever wondered how much GNU is actually there in GNU/Linux? Well, the answer might surprise you.

Pedro Côrte-Real wondered the same and he went on to find out the answer. Using the main repository of Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narhwal" as an example, he counted the lines of code (LOC) of as a metric of the size of the projects.

According to his calculation, GNU makes up no more than 8% of the total lines of code of the software found in the Ubuntu 11.04 repository. In the calculation, GNOME, which makes up 5%, is not counted as a part of GNU. Some might object to that, but it actually makes sense because GNOME is largely run separately from the rest of the GNU projects. The Linux kernel makes up 9%.

The most interesting result from the study is, however, the percentage of other smaller projects. They make up for an amazing 56% of the total lines of code. Here is a pie-chart to illustrate the percentages of the different projects that makes up the Ubuntu 11.04 repository.

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Anonymous

But it’s a *really important* 8%. Without coreutils and gcc (and to a degree, bash), Linux would have remained Linus’ dorm room experiment.
- Anonymous
  
  I have never understood how gcc is supposed to be part of the operating system. It’s like saying Visual C++ is part of Windows, which of course it isn’t.
  - Anonymous
    
    With what are all the programs, including the kernel, compiled with, but by gcc?
    
    Thus, while an end user can be fully productive w/o having gcc on her machine, it’s still as essential to Linux as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen are to life as we know it.
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McIvor

Hence why some critics of the GNU/Linux name jokingly suggested calling it “GNU/X/Apache/KDE/Sun/Linux”.
http://twitter.com/willowmedia_nl Peter Hagen

maybe I’m wrong, but Linux is not GNU en GNU/Linux is an attempt to create a Linux version with only GNU software, by the Free Software Foundation. Ubuntu has nothing to do with this actually. Please see this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU/Linux_naming_controversy
Jim Salter

This is very misleading. Counting the number of lines of code in the entire repository is by no means the same thing as counting the number of lines of code in a typical installed system.

The repositories contain far, far, FAR more code than what’s installed on any single system. Just to f’rinstance a f’rinstance, my workstation returns 1,896 packages installed versus 43,491 packages available. Most of those “missing” 40,000+ packages I don’t have installed belong in that big white “other” in the pie chart, leaving GNU projects looking much more significant on an actual, installed system.