Return to BSD News archive
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd
Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!mips!mips!darwin.sura.net!wupost!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!menudo.uh.edu!sugar!taronga!peter
From: peter@taronga.com (Peter da Silva)
Subject: Re: Restrictions on 'free' UNIX / 386BSD (Re: selling 386BSD)
Message-ID: <YSDIBS4@taronga.com>
Organization: Taronga Park BBS
References: <PHR.92Aug15151100@soda.berkeley.edu> <63DILTJ@taronga.com> <PHR.92Aug15214245@soda.berkeley.edu>
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1992 17:33:24 GMT
Lines: 20
In article <PHR.92Aug15214245@soda.berkeley.edu> phr@soda.berkeley.edu (Paul Rubin) writes:
> If 386BSD was copylefted, it would be Linux. It's the absence of copyleft
> that leads to the possibility of more than a bunch of random hackers
> benefiting from it.
>Please clarify this. How is anyone else prevented from benefitting
>from it? Say, for example, the same people who now benefit from GCC?
OK, I missed one aspect of this in my previous article. There is a large
category of people who now benefit from GCC who would not be able to
benefit from a GPL-covered 386BSD. Next, Sun (In Solaris 2), and I believe
MIPS ship GCC with their products, in some cases as the primary compilers.
This sort of distribution is not practical for an operating system.
Mundanes are people too.
--
`-_-'
Have you hugged your wolf today? 'U`
Peter da Silva, Taronga Park BBS, Houston, TX +1 713 568 0480/1032