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From: fritz@unocss.UUCP (Tim Russell)
Newsgroups: gnu.emacs
Subject: Re: Boycott apple!
Message-ID: <1104@unocss.UUCP>
Date: 21 Jul 89 16:48:15 GMT
References: <8907202252.AA02288@sugar-bombs.ai.mit.edu>
Distribution: gnu
Organization: U. of Nebraska at Omaha
Lines: 62

rms@ai.mit.edu writes:

>The FSF does not include support for A/UX in the Emacs distribution
>because we are boycotting Apple for their "look and feel" lawsuit.
>We will continue to boycott them until they either lose or drop the suit.
>If they win the suit, the boycott will continue as long as we do.

Mr. Stallman:

   What Apple is doing is wrong.  I agree.  What you are doing is also
wrong, i.e. leaving the many people who have unknowingly supported Apple
in the dust.

   I use gnu emacs because it is a fine product, as are all the FSF programs.
It's really a pity that the FSF has such a fanatic for a leader.  If I thought
that it would hurt the FSF, I would stop using all gnu products and remove
them from our system.  But it won't, so I won't.

   By the way, the breaking point for me was when you proposed that the
difference between the killings in China and Apple's lawsuit was only
"a matter of degree", in this message:

>From: rms@AI.MIT.EDU
>Newsgroups: gnu.gcc
>Subject: (none)
>Date: 6 Jun 89 19:11:07 GMT
>
>    >Whether it be Tiananmen Square or Panama City or Pretoria...
>    >etc.
>
>    Shheesh...get a grip on reality here. In no way is the issue of
>    free software nearly as big a deal this nut makes out. People are
>    DYING in Tiananmen Square, you know.
>
>The fight for the freedom to program has not escalated to the level of
>killing.  Apple is not trying to shoot programmers who write
>compatible software, and we are not trying to shoot the employees of
>Apple.
>
>However, they are trying to arrange to send men with guns (police) to
>stop us from writing compatible software.  They probably will try to
>avoid shooting, but they may well imprison some of us for years if we
>refuse to stop.
>
>The difference between this and China is a matter of degree.  The
>spirit is the same.

   By drawing this comparison, Mr. Stallman, you cheapened the lives of
many brave students who fought and died in China for the concept of
freedom.  I am deeply ashamed of you and am only glad that this message
was not seen by the American public at large.

I post this here because some of the Emacs people may not have seen the
debates in gnu.gcc.  I think that you're so devoted to the concept of
free software, Mr. Stallman, that you've forgotten the people that use
that software.

-- 
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