🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <183hbrINNekd@carbon.rpal.rockwell.com> Brian L. Acton <acton@rpal.rockwell.com> writes:
>In an alternate newsgroup the question was raised whether there was a
>version of g++ for the Macintosh.  Someone quickly retorted that there
>was no gnu software for religious reasons.  My question for all
>netland/gnu proponents is what are the religious reasons.  If this is a
>faq, my apologies please direct me to the proper source.

They aren't religious reasons, but rather survival reasons.  Apple's
legal maneuvers threaten to put outfits like the FSF out of business.
If a company can own the rights to an interface based on its "look and
feel", then the end goal of the Gnu project -- a freely redistributable
system that is upward compatible with Unix -- will be illegal.  So FSF
is not boycotting Apple because of philosophical reasons at all, but
rather because it is fighting for its survival.

Nevertheless, it is not illegal to port Gnu applications to Apple
machines, and many have.  But don't expect 'em to help you out or like you
for doing it.

Actually, I think that the USL-Berkeley-BSDI suit is a more direct threat
to FSF's existence, since as Piercarlo Grandi points out, if Networking-2
is illegal, then Mach 3.0 is also illegal for the same reasons.  It gets
worse than Piercarlo's scenario.  Dropping Mach might not even be good
enough.  If USL's trade-secrets argument prevails, wouldn't looking at the
(now illegal) Mach 3.0 code make one privy to USL trade secrets that
couldn't be exploited?  FSF would then have to fire everyone who's ever
seen Mach.  Producing Gnu might become completely impossible.  Any kernel
hackers who've seen Unix kernel source code on the gnu-hurd mailing list?
(of course there are).

[Enter USL lawyer mode] Can you PROVE, Mr. Stallman, that no trade secrets
from the One True Unix were accidentally leaked to your organization?

Should FSF then boycott all USL-derived products?  I think not; continuing
to develop Gnu as quickly as possible and getting it spread far and wide
would be the best revenge.  The suit against Berkeley and BSDI will take
years, and if the Gnu Hurd gets released before USL turns on CMU to go
after Mach, then it along with Linus and BSDI will take more out of AT&T
than any boycott is likely to.

At the same time, providing freely redistributable, easy-to-use (for
non-hackers) GUIs to a system running the Gnu Hurd, Linux, or whatever
may take a bigger hunk out of Apple than any boycott is likely to, but
that is another matter.





--
Joe Buck	jbuck@ohm.berkeley.edu