this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2025
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[–] dontsayaword@piefed.social 259 points 1 day ago (5 children)

and the g in gnu stands for gnu

[–] Klear@quokk.au 94 points 1 day ago (5 children)

So if I'm getting it right, gobject is short for gnugnu(...)gnuimptklibobject.

[–] logi@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

It is front recursive so it's really "...is not unix is not unix is not unix is not unix image manipulation program tool kit object" and that first g doesn't exist.

[–] marcos@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Following the modern C conventions, the text following the series of (gnu) doesn't matter and you can write anything you want there.

[–] degen@midwest.social 5 points 1 day ago

Gnugnugnufuckyou

It's recursive so it's more like gnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnu...

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago

Now you need to write a layer of typedefs to map the expanded names back to their original types.

[–] mech@feddit.org 58 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Fun fact: The K in GNU stands for Kernel.

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 52 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Then what does the g in gnu stand for?

[–] Zink@programming.dev 96 points 1 day ago (1 children)

you're not gonna believe this...

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 30 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I’ve got g’news for you…

[–] Zink@programming.dev 7 points 1 day ago

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

[–] QBertReynolds@sh.itjust.works 30 points 1 day 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 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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 22 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] cypherix93@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

as in the inventor of chess, THE Gary Chess?

rival of George Checkers?

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago
[–] degen@midwest.social 1 points 1 day ago

Greatsoftware Notwithstanding Unix

[–] pmk@piefed.ca 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Okay but what does the g stand for?

[–] justaman123@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Blue Gnu or Black Gnu?

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 18 points 1 day ago (2 children)

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.

[–] Zoot@reddthat.com 3 points 21 hours ago

Noot noot mother fucker

[–] rocnat@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Well, I dont wanna start a debate, but the official website of GNU indicate that the "g" in GNU isn't silent.

So it depends on whether you want to pronounce it "properly" or as it was intended.

The name “GNU” is a recursive acronym for “GNU's Not Unix!”; it is pronounced as one syllable with a hard g, like “grew” but with the letter n instead of r.

https://www.gnu.org/gnu/pronunciation.en.html

[–] Zacryon@feddit.org 4 points 22 hours ago
[–] merc@sh.itjust.works -2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Well, I dont wanna start a debate, but the official website of GNU indicate that the "g" in GNU isn't silent.

Yeah, but that's wrong. It's named after the animal, and the animal is pronounced without a G sound. I'm not going to mangle the pronunciation because they screwed up.

[–] anguo@piefed.ca 3 points 18 hours ago

Depends on where you're from.

[–] Quibblekrust@thelemmy.club 5 points 1 day ago

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