*BSD News Article 14962


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From: kem@cis.ufl.edu (Kelly Murray)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux,comp.os.386bsd.questions
Subject: Re: GNUified Linux vs FREE 386BSD
Date: 21 Apr 1993 20:31:40 GMT
Organization: University of Florida
Lines: 28
Sender: kem@zoyd (Kelly Murray)
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <1r4avcINNlr9@no-names.nerdc.ufl.edu>
References: <1993Apr15.225354.18654@samba.oit.unc.edu> <HSU.93Apr21142407@cardhu.cs.hut.fi>
NNTP-Posting-Host: zoyd.prl.ufl.edu

In article <HSU.93Apr21142407@cardhu.cs.hut.fi>, hsu@cs.hut.fi (Heikki Suonsivu) writes:
|> 
|> In article <1qus7eINNcib@no-names.nerdc.ufl.edu> kem@zoyd.NoSubdomain.NoDomain (Kelly Murray) writes:
|>    provides benefits to EVERYBODY.  Everybody includes people who create
|> 
|> Not quite, lots of free code is taken by large corporations, on which they
|> stick their own copyright and prevent the fixes and enchancements from
|> being used by anyone else.  I have seen this, BSD copyright with "Copyright
|> 1992 HAL corporation, all rights reserver, this code is protected by trade
|> secrets act" or something like this. 

I said that really-free programs provide benefits to everyone, not
commercial versions based on them.  (Commercial software based on really-free
software also provides benefits (a related point), but I get the impression 
you do not acknowledge this.)

|> 
|> Preventing this is what GPL is all about; it restricts the software from
|> being restricted.  True, some people don't like this, but they do have many
|> alternatives, so they should have nothing to complain about?  If they don't
|> like paying for other people's work, they can always write their own
|> compilers with no restrictions?

I don't think you read my post.  The first line I say exactly this.
Now whether I like it, I think my position is clear: 
really free software provides more benefits than GNUifed software.  

 -Kelly