CNet has an amusing commentary from Richard Stallman about the confusion between the GNU operating system and the Linux kernel whose development was started much later by Linus Torvalds. The point is that the kernel is only a small part of the operating system and in Unix-like operating systems can generally be changed with relatively little difficulty. You could certainly have a "Linux" system that looked exactly the same as it does today but did not use the Linux kernel or any Linux code. "Linux itself is no longer essential: the GNU system became popular in conjunction with Linux, but today it also runs with two BSD kernels and the GNU kernel," says Stallman.
Update: this is being discussed on Slashdot now.
Background: see my 1998 interview with RMS, originally published in Online though I can't find it on the Guardian's site.
