Accusations, accusations, always accusations

[Richard Stallman]

    This thread seems to be about giving credit to the GNU effort, while the
    above statement suggest that Linus' contribution was just a snap or some
    strike of luck.

That's exactly what it was.  Linus was not aiming or planning to help
complete a free operating system.  He wrote a kernel for completely
different reasons.  The fact that it was then useful for producing a
free operating system was a happy accident in terms of his motives.

I don't consider this a criticism; some of my projects, such as the
original Emacs, were happy accidents too.

     Is it really necessary to play down some one else's
    contribution to justify the GNU/Linux name?

I am sorry you feel that this is "playing down".  Pointing out the
reasons why Linus wrote Linux does not alter the merits of Linux as a
technical contribution.  My point is about how a different
contribution, the vision of a complete free system, came from the GNU
Project.