this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2023
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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I think part of why it's confusing is that we don't have defined names for these things. This is so early in a social media "product" life that there isn't a common understanding. You're now part of making those names. It's a bit exciting but mostly confusing while everyone uses their own terms to mean the same fundamental things. Embrace the chaos!
@Piatro @CallMeIshmael In my heart, I still toot.
Lemmy is four years old, I think there are names for these things and we should probably learn them.
We are travelers in a land that already had people, maybe see what they call it before declaring it New Amsterdam.
I don't know, Reddit and Lemmy differ from common social media platforms (I wouldn't really call Reddit style forums social media anyway) in that they are structured around different topics/categories and threads and in that way are closer to earlier newsgroups, bbs's, forums and such. So the main concepts aren't really that new and weird, we have had subforums, topics, groups, channels and such for decades now.
Yeah that's where I think the fediverse is failing new users. Talking about the fediverse itself and instancing etc is just making it sound complicated. No other social media/forum/whatever talks about its technology in such an up front way, for good reason.
But we do: Communities.
You find that term in the UI, in user documentation, and the /c/ part of the URL also refers to that.
Calling it anything else, especially unrelated to /c/, will only make it harder and more confusing for new people to join.