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Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!uunet!usc!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!agate!agate!phr From: phr@soda.berkeley.edu (Paul Rubin) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Subject: Re: Restrictions on 'free' UNIX / 386BSD (Re: selling 386BSD) Date: 16 Aug 92 22:19:08 Organization: CSUA/UCB Lines: 27 Message-ID: <PHR.92Aug16221908@soda.berkeley.edu> References: <PHR.92Aug15151100@soda.berkeley.edu> <63DILTJ@taronga.com> <PHR.92Aug15214245@soda.berkeley.edu> <MNDIKJ3@taronga.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: soda.berkeley.edu In-reply-to: peter@taronga.com's message of Sun, 16 Aug 1992 14:20:29 GMT In article <MNDIKJ3@taronga.com> peter@taronga.com (Peter da Silva) writes: 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? The people who aren't hackers and don't have net access, who want to walk down to the store and buy a shrinkwrapped copy of GCC with a technical support number and related articles in PC-Week. I don't understand. How is it that these people you mention (I guess you mean people who buy NeXT's, or OSF/1(?), or the Cygnus-supported shrink-wrapped GCC's for Sparcstations and (later) 386's, etc.) don't benefit from GCC? If they are using it productively, they are benefitting from it. The people who aren't hackers and want to walk down to the store and buy a shrinkwrapped copy of "386BSD-Lite" with a technical support number and a bunch of application programs in shrinkwrap on the shelf next to it. Tell me more---386bsd isn't copylefted; where can I get a shrinkwrapped copy?