^Stallman, Richard. Linux and the GNU Project. About the GNU Project. Free Software Foundation. 2007-06-19 [2007-07-22]. (原始内容存档于2011-06-29). Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is more often known as “Linux”, and many users are not aware of the extent of its connection with the GNU Project. There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is not the operating system. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run.
^The Debian Project. What is Debian?. About Debian. 2007-07-11 [2007-07-22]. (原始内容存档于2007-04-06). Debian uses the Linux kernel (the core of an operating system), but most of the basic OS tools come from the GNU project; hence the name GNU/Linux.