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- Xref: sparky comp.sys.mac.oop.misc:96 comp.sys.mac.programmer:19938
- Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.oop.misc,comp.sys.mac.programmer
- Path: sparky!uunet!timbuk.cray.com!walter.cray.com!baritone!toma
- From: toma@baritone (Thomas Arneberg)
- Subject: gnu on Mac (was: Summary: I'm faint! I just saw the price for MPW!)
- Message-ID: <1992Dec16.163835.16699@walter.cray.com>
- Lines: 65
- Nntp-Posting-Host: baritone.cray.com
- Organization: Cray Research, Inc.
- References: <1gb6n9INNpmk@terminator.rs.itd.umich.edu> <1992Dec16.132756.20642@gssec.bt.co.uk> <BzDBL1.Dt@cs.uiuc.edu>
- Date: 16 Dec 92 16:38:34 CST
-
- In article <BzDBL1.Dt@cs.uiuc.edu> tthiel@cs.uiuc.edu (Terry Thiel) writes:
- >agauld@gssec.bt.co.uk (Alan Gauld) writes:
- >>A small point but I don't think Stallman has anything against Macs.
- >>Its Apple he doesn't like (and anyone else who throws copyright suits
- >>around)... Since Apple are thus hindering development of quality software he
- >
- >Everyone in the computer industry does the lawsuit thing, Stallman doesn't
- >like Apple becasue the Mac is a closed system.
- >-Terry
-
- Excerpts from the gcc.info-1 file in the gcc 2.3.1 distribution:
-
- [...]
-
- Apple and Lotus are trying to create a new form of legal monopoly: a
- copyright on a class of user interfaces. These monopolies would cause
- serious problems for users and developers of computer software and
- systems. Xerox, too, has tried to make a monopoly for itself on window
- systems; their suit against Apple was thrown out on a technicality, but
- Xerox has not said anything to indicate it wouldn't try again.
-
- [...]
-
- If companies like Xerox, Lotus, and Apple are permitted to make law
- through the courts, the precedent will hobble the software industry:
-
- * Software will become and remain more expensive. Users will be
- "locked in" to proprietary interfaces, for which there is no real
- competition.
-
- * User interface improvements will come slower, since incremental
- evolution through creative imitation will no longer be permitted.
-
- * Even Apple, etc., will find it harder to make improvements if
- they can no longer adapt the good ideas that others introduce,
- for fear of weakening their own legal positions. Some users
- suggest that this stagnation may already have started.
-
- [...]
-
- Here are some suggestions from the League [for Programming Freedom] for
- things you can do to protect your freedom to write programs:
-
- * Don't buy from Xerox, Lotus or Apple. Buy from their competitors
- or from the defendants they are suing.
-
- * Don't develop software to work with the systems made by these
- companies.
-
- * Above all, don't work for the look-and-feel plaintiffs, and don't
- accept contracts from them.
-
- [...]
-
-
- I don't know who wrote this file, but THEY sure don't like Apple! Too
- bad...it sure would be nice to get a free C++ compiler on the Mac...
-
- - Tom A.
- ---------------------------------------------+------------------------------
- ;-) I'd rather be ____ Thomas R. Arneberg | Internet: toma@cray.com
- :-) singing in a |____| Senior IC Design Eng.| UUCP: ...!uunet!cray!toma
- :-) Barbershop _| _| Cray Research, Inc. | CLAIM TO FAME: Loni Anderson
- :-) Quartet! (_) (_) Chippewa Falls, Wisc.| went to my high school
- ---------------------------------------------+------------------------------
-