The '''[[GNU/Linux naming controversy]]''' is a conflict between the [[Free Software Foundation]] ([[Richard Stallman]] in particular) and the vast majority of users over how the [[operating system]] commonly called "[[Linux]]" should be named. The Free Software Foundation promotes the term "GNU/Linux", while most people simply use the term "Linux" for the whole system. The main argument for ''GNU/Linux'' is that the [[Linux kernel]] was only the final small part of an otherwise complete system, GNU, that had been painstakingly written and assembled over many years with the explicit goal of creating a free operating system. On the other hand, ''Linux'' is the most widespread name, and most people therefore simply adopt this usage, while references to the naming controversy appear only infrequently in mainstream sources. The naming controversy is also a reflection of a wider confusion between Linux the kernel and Linux the operating system as a whole (of which the kernel is typically only a small part).