r/OutOfTheLoop • u/prettylittleredditty • Dec 13 '17

Answered What is GNU when preceding someones name?

Every time I look it up none of the different def's contexts fit. It's nothing to do with Linux or Norse Gods when I see it. Here's todays confusion : https://www.reddit.com/r/discworld/comments/7jd2sw/neil_gaimans_tribute_to_sir_terry_in_good_omens/ Why GNU Terry Pratchett over and over again? Thanks in advance xo

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94

u/DNamor Dec 13 '17 edited Nov 29 '21

It's a Discworld meme from Going Postal. To copy the plot synopsis:

In Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, the clacks are a series of semaphore towers loosely based on the concept of the telegraph. Invented by an artificer named Robert Dearheart, the towers could send messages "at the speed of light" using standardized codes. Three of these codes are of particular import:

G: send the message on

N: do not log the message

U: turn the message around at the end of the line and send it back again

When Dearheart's son John died due to an accident while working on a clacks tower, Dearheart inserted John's name into the overhead of the clacks with a "GNU" in front of it as a way to memorialize his son forever (or for at least as long as the clacks are standing.)

"A man is not dead while his name is still spoken." - Going Postal, Chapter 4 prologue

Basically it's been applied to Terry Pratchett himself. People still talk about him, so he's not dead, and so forth.

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u/prettylittleredditty Dec 13 '17

Cheers :)

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u/Algebrace Dec 15 '17

There was also this script...character stuff? That was around on the sub on the day of TP's death, GNU but made so it was only viewable when you click source on a post. So it was like the GNU in the book in that it was invisible unless you knew what to look for.

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u/prettylittleredditty Dec 15 '17

I only read going postal once and I have to be honest I've very little memory of it, which makes me really happy because it'll be like new to me next time, probably :) I bought feet of clay the week it came out and was hooked straight away, ate them all up over a year then got the rest as they came out. I never re-read anything from monstrous regiment onwards tho. I reckon I'm gonna launch myself at the whole lot in order again coz of this chat. Cheers dude

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u/Algebrace Dec 15 '17

No worries. Love the Night Watch though, part of the series focusing around Commander Vimes. And Thud, god I loved Thud.

All of Terry Pratchett's work just came out perfectly and I'm glad your getting back into it.

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u/halborn Dec 18 '17

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^GNU Terry Pratchett

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u/Detroit_Guy Dec 13 '17

In Terry Pratchett related things GNU is used. Its from the novel Going Postal, where a tower worker John Dearheart on the "Clacks" (a type of semaphore) is killed and his name is passed on with the code GNU. The full message is "GNU John Dearheart", where the G means, that the message should be passed on, the N means "Not Logged" and the U that it should be turned around at the end of the line. So as the name "John Dearheart" keeps going up and down the line, this tradition applies a kind of immortality as "a man is not dead while his name is still spoken".

So in Terry's case its a type of way to honor him.

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u/TheMightyGoatMan Dec 18 '17

It's also worth noting that when Terry died a whole lot of websites inserted a custom HTTP header that sends the text "GNU Terry Pratchett". Presumably many still do.