🚀 go-pugleaf

rcrw90@email.mot.com (Mike Waters) writes:

>A few weeks ago there was a post to gnu.misc.discuss which claimed that 
>Motorola was funding some sort og GNU support.  I have been unable to
>find any more detail concerning this either from the author or internally.

MCG ships gcc as the compiler for Delta Series boxes running our SVR 4
port. I believe that they shoot money to Cygnus Support for maintenance,
etc.

>Does anyone know if this is true and if so who is the contact persona

I'd imagine that your colleagues in MCG legal could help you on this one.

-FB
-- 
---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---   
Fred Brunner - Sr. Systems Engineer (all opinions expressed solely my own)
Intelligent Vehicle/Highway Systems Group - Motorola, Inc.
---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---   ---

"Mike" == Mike Waters <rcrw90@email.mot.com> writes:

Mike> A few weeks ago there was a post to gnu.misc.discuss which
Mike> claimed that Motorola was funding some sort og GNU support.  I
Mike> have been unable to find any more detail concerning this either
Mike> from the author or internally.

Here's something from the June 1993 GNU's Bulletin:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Informal ``GCC Consortium''
*************************

A group of companies including Intel, Motorola, Texas Instruments & Analog
Devices have pooled funds to support central maintenance of GNU CC.  The
maintenance will be coordinated by Richard Kenner of New York University.

The task of central maintenance is to take responsibility for fixing bugs,
integrating and cleaning up contributions, making releases and writing high
priority improvements.

Richard Stallman hopes this will enable him to undertake a new project.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Please let me know too.

thanks,

Jeff Enderwick
jeff@dsp.sps.mot.com

In article <1993Aug12.155911.8646@schbbs.mot.com> rcrw90@email.mot.com (Mike Waters) writes:

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   From: rcrw90@email.mot.com (Mike Waters)
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   Date: Thu, 12 Aug 1993 15:59:11 GMT
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   A few weeks ago there was a post to gnu.misc.discuss which claimed that 
   Motorola was funding some sort og GNU support.  I have been unable to
   find any more detail concerning this either from the author or internally.

   Does anyone know if this is true and if so who is the contact person?

In article <fred.745184346@ivhs.mot.com>, fred@ivhs.mot.com (Fred Brunner) writes:
|>rcrw90@email.mot.com (Mike Waters) writes:
|>
|>>A few weeks ago there was a post to gnu.misc.discuss which claimed that 
|>>Motorola was funding some sort og GNU support.  I have been unable to
|>>find any more detail concerning this either from the author or internally.
|>
|>MCG ships gcc as the compiler for Delta Series boxes running our SVR 4
|>port. I believe that they shoot money to Cygnus Support for maintenance,
|>etc.
|>
|>>Does anyone know if this is true and if so who is the contact persona
|>
|>I'd imagine that your colleagues in MCG legal could help you on this one.
|>
|>-FB

This prompts a thought that I've had several times over the last months:

1) Motorola wants to become a company that can produce great software;
2) To produce great software you need great tools;
3) You also need contractual support for the tools;
4) GNU makes the greatest tools around (gcc, rcs, emacs, etc);

Conclusion: Motorola should ensure that all Motorola projects have access
to good, cheap support for GNU tools.

We could do this either by negotiating a company-wide policy with Cygnus,
or we could do this by creating an internal support organisation.  Either
way, I know that it would make a big change in my life - I could stop trying
to use DEC's c89 and Sun's acc, and start using gcc and even g++.  I can't
believe that the cost, spread over the whole of Motorola, would be
significant.

If anybody has real suggestions on how/who I could push to think about
actually implementing this, let me know.

Lezz

>>>>> On 12 Aug 93 19:39:06 GMT, fred@ivhs.mot.com (Fred Brunner) said:

>A few weeks ago there was a post to gnu.misc.discuss which claimed that 
>Motorola was funding some sort og GNU support.  I have been unable to
>find any more detail concerning this either from the author or internally.

Fred> MCG ships gcc as the compiler for Delta Series boxes running our SVR 4
Fred> port. I believe that they shoot money to Cygnus Support for maintenance,
Fred> etc.

Yes we ship GCC as the default compiler for SVR4. No, we do not send
money to Cygnus or to the Free Software Foundation. 

I think that this is a disappointment.  The Computer Group used to pay a
lot of money to compiler vendors which provided compilers that are
inferior to GCC. We replaced those compilers with a free compiler which
performs better and is easier to maintain. (We have one person in the
Computer Group who ported and maintains GCC for three different OS
releases! Of course, there are countless others outside of Motorola who
also "helped" us provide GCC).

Many people agree that Motorola should help FSF in some manner. As of
recently I know that this has not happened because I have seen mail from
Richard Stallman saying so. Unfortunately, everyone seems to have a
rational as to why some other entity within Motorola should be the one
to foot the bill.

There are ways to help the FSF other than having Motorola make a large
donation to the FSF. Have your department purchase GNU source from the
FSF on tape or CD ROM. Stallman has told me that this is their primary
source of funds. 

Don't local managers have signature authority for making small
purchases? If you use GNU software, have your department purchase source
or manuals from FSF. If lots of individual groups did this it would
start to repay our debt to the FSF.


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