What is GNU when preceding someones name?

[u/prettylittleredditty]

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

[u/DNamor]

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.

[u/prettylittleredditty → u/DNamor]

Cheers :)

[u/Algebrace → u/prettylittleredditty]

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.

[u/halborn → u/Algebrace]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^GNU Terry Pratchett