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- Xref: sparky comp.sys.mac.programmer:20998 comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.tools:1936 comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.misc:4747
- Path: sparky!uunet!psinntp!lupine!mellon
- From: mellon@ncd.com (Ted Lemon)
- Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer,comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.tools,comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.misc
- Subject: Re: Stallman and friends
- Message-ID: <MELLON.93Jan7170831@pepper.ncd.com>
- Date: 8 Jan 93 01:08:31 GMT
- References: <D2150035.mrrnh5@outpost.SF-Bay.org> <1993Jan5.075021.970@shawn.uucp>
- <1993Jan05.231932.21087@eng.umd.edu>
- Sender: news@NCD.COM
- Followup-To: comp.sys.mac.programmer
- Organization: Network Computing Devices, Inc.
- Lines: 31
- Nntp-Posting-Host: pepper
- In-reply-to: russotto@eng.umd.edu's message of 5 Jan 93 23:19:32 GMT
-
-
- >They state them quite openly: they want software to be free, or at
- >least they don't want people to have to pay for it with money. They
- >DON'T believe it should be free of attached strings, which say that
- >anyone who uses their software must treat the product of their work in
- >accordance with Stallman's wishes.
-
- You have it exactly backwards. The FSF does not claim that you must
- be able to get their software for free, and they go out of their way
- to prevent strings from being attached to the software. The *only*
- string attached is that you may attach no strings.
-
- There is absolutely nothing to prevent you from using GCC on the
- MacIntosh, and in fact some people do. However, Stallman refuses to
- maintain donated code for Apple products, whereas he will maintain
- donated code for many other platforms. However, he probably wouldn't
- be willing to maintain a MacOS port in any case, since MacOS is not
- Unix. The FSF does not maintain either the VMS or MS-DOS gcc ports.
-
- I too think that the FSF stance on Apple is unfortunate, since it
- basically serves no purpose except to piss people off to the point
- where they aren't interested in anything that the FSF has to say,
- which is too bad, because if you read the GNU Manifesto with an open
- mind, there's a lot of worthwhile thought there, whether or not you
- agree with it in its entirety.
-
- _MelloN_
- --
- mellon@ncd.com uunet!lupine!mellon
- Member of the League for Programming Freedom. To find out how software
- patents may cost you your right to program, contact lpf@uunet.uu.net
-