🚀 go-pugleaf

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.
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