the.com/gnu
An antelope that looks like a committee designed it, then named itself twice.
means A large African antelope (also called wildebeest) with a heavy, cow-like head, curved horns, and a horse-like mane and tail, known for massive migratory herds.
from English borrowed 'gnu' in the late 1700s from Khoekhoe (a language of southern Africa), where the animal's name — something like !nu — was likely an imitation of the snorting, grunting sound the antelope makes. So in a sense, the gnu named itself: the word is probably onomatopoeia for its own call.
- name origin
- GNU's Not Unix, a joke acronym that recurses forever
- the animal
- also called wildebeest, built from leftover spare parts
- software legacy
- gave the world GCC, Emacs, and free software itself
- migration scale
- over a million wildebeest cross the Serengeti yearly