🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Jan22.102140.1061@and.cs.liv.ac.uk> rkl@and.cs.liv.ac.uk writes:
>In article <9201211550.AA04654@pop-tarts>,
> tower@ai.mit.edu (Leonard H. Tower Jr.) writes:
>> The GNU Project prefers that it's mailing lists and newsgroups not be
>> used to help port software to Apple Computers.
>> [mucho stuff deleted]
>
>To be honest, I think it was a little unfair to:
>
>a) Post this well-distributed GNU rant about Apple to this group - anyone
>   who has a decent set of GNU utilities has seen that message plenty of
>   times already.

Well, maybe; not having a decent set of GNU utilities, I couldn't say. But
*I* hadn't seen it before, and I was glad to. I assume you have a working
'n' key on your machine?

>b) Post it to the group simply because someone had problems compiling GNU
>   Chess on a Macintosh ! I could equally post a rant about how garbage
>   MS-DOS PC's EVERY TIME someone wants help on compiling GNU Chess for PCs,
>   but I don't - simply because it's very bad net etiquette indeed and I'd
>   become very unpopular very quickly.

Hm. This is a better point, but I'd be more sympathetic to it if the anti-Apple
post had appeared several times on *this* newsgroup. I've been reading
since the summer, and, like I said, I've never seen it before.

Besides, the tone of the anti-Apple post (if you want to call it that) is a
little different from slamming DOS machines just because they suck (which
of course they do :-) ). So is the content. It's not just a computer-religion
issue; it's deeper, more serious, and more polite, for starters.

>Are we going to be subjected to this GNU rant every time any Apple product
>is mentioned in any GNU group ? I surely hope not. Personally, I find GNU's
>attitude towards Apple nearly as bad as Apple's "look-and-feel" lawsuit
>fiasco. To me, it really does go against the whole "Free Software Foundation"
>idea - FSF: as long as you don't upset us ! Very fascistic indeed !

You're deliberately overstating the case about "this GNU rant"; I assume this
is because you're just sick of seeing it. But be advised that not all of us
out here have (well, maybe we have *now* ...).

About going against the "Free Software Foundation idea," I couldn't disagree
more. For one thing, it's the avowed aim of the FSF to *promote* the general
principle of free software -- IN THE LONG RUN -- by this act. They're caught
between a rock and  a hard place -- should they support Apple, even though 
what Apple is doing may work against their cause in the future, or not? I
think they've made the correct decision. FSF ain't *required* to support
*anyone*, you know; and I don't think it's "fascistic" to refuse to support
someone who's trying to undermine you. I think it's smart.

On the whole, I suspect your reaction is born of annoyance, not of rational
thought. I hope you will reconsider your position and agree with me. But
then, I always hope that about people, and it so rarely happens ....

>Richard K. Lloyd,       **** This is a MicroVAX II running VAX/VMS V5.4 ****

--
Scott Maxwell (CSMAXWEL@ECUVM1.BITNET or Scott.Maxwell@bbs.oit.unc.edu)