The entire naming business, is simply for people to not forget the value system of freedom that GNU stands for. Some people it may think it does not matter, but others do.
the only people who think it matters are those pleading for credit
Are you implying that ``everyone" who thinks so is ``pleading for credit"? If you are, well that's totally incorrect. If this entire thing was only about credit then the guy who started this would have called it ``The Stallman Project", ``The Stallmacs Editor", ``The Stallman Compiler", ``Stallmake", ``Stallmson lexical analyzer" and finally ``The Stallman Public License".
But he chose NOT to tie his name to a project to inflate his ego. Only people who want to polish their ego would do that.
For the record. i haven't contributed an iota of code in ANY free software repository till today. i do not deserve any ``credit" nor am i lame enough to ``plead" for it if i did. But i choose to say the word GNU with the name of the operating system because i believe in the value of freedom.
i don't think it is right to generalise all of GNU as ``pleading for credit", in fact its insulting a LOT of very dedicated people who believe in changing the world and making a difference.
Regards,
- vihan