*BSD News Article 3790


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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd
Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!uunet!cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!qt.cs.utexas.edu!yale.edu!cmcl2!panix!tls
From: tls@panix.com (Thor Lancelot Simon)
Subject: Re: Restrictions on free UNIX / 386BSD (Re: selling 386BSD)
Message-ID: <1992Aug17.225116.20533@panix.com>
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 22:51:16 GMT
References: <PHR.92Aug15214245@soda.berkeley.edu> <YSDIBS4@taronga.com> <9208162341.30@rmkhome.UUCP>
Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix & Internet, NYC
Lines: 31

In article <9208162341.30@rmkhome.UUCP> rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly) writes:
>In article <YSDIBS4@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?
>>
>>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.
>
>
>And from reading comp.unix.solaris, I get the idea that a number of development
>shops will buy compilers for Solaris 2.0 because of the GNU Copyleft.

I'm sorry, that's just stupid.  Is this another reincarnation of the anti-FSF
propaganda line about "if you compile your code with GCC, it's covered by
copyleft!!!!"?  That suggestion is patently false.  The degree to which a number
of commercial software houses are frightened of the FSF is neatly displayed by
the persistence of this absurd rumor.

-- 
Thor Lancelot Simon	 tls@panix.COM
  "Oh, you have wounded me!  I have very few prejudices, actually.  The
biggest problem is that I am intolerant of fools.  That is why I have
such a low tolerance level for Libertarians."  -- Jim McMaster