Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!midway!daisy!francis From: francis@daisy.uchicago.edu (Francis Stracke) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer Subject: Re: Gnu C Compiler for MPW Unchained! Message-ID: <1990Dec12.065441.17395@midway.uchicago.edu> Date: 12 Dec 90 06:54:41 GMT References: <1990Dec11.210748.29010@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (News Administrator) Organization: Mathematics Department, University of Chicago Lines: 42 In article <1990Dec11.210748.29010@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> dorner@pequod.cso.uiuc.edu (Steve Dorner) writes: >>GNU boycott (as I have heard it explained) is a request for people not to >>encourage or support the use GNU software on Apple hardware. > >It's more than that. Stallman wants no one to buy or use any Apple equipment >for any purpose. If Apple has what's best for you, he suggests you wait >until somebody else provides it. > >He also wants everyone to boycott NeXT until the offer for a free copy of >Lotus' spreadsheet expires. > No offense to anybody at FSF, but this sounds a little silly. Macs are one of the best things that could possibly have happened for the computer world as a whole. I really appreciate GNU stuff. I'm using GNUmacs under X now, with at least some mouse support, & it's very nice--FOR A UNIX PRODUCT. If anyone suggested to me that the average person could use it quickly and easily, I'd laugh in his face. I've taught people to use a Mac word processor--include fonts, style, and footnotes-- in under half an hour. These are not computer people; these are people who've never used any keyboard with even a minimal brain attached. Moreover, I've just taught them how to use, at least partially, *every* Mac word processor there is. They love it! (I love it! :-) These people go on to buy their own Macs, get software for them, etc. Remember: free software means nothing to someone who doesn't have a computer. >I also think it's ridiculous to try to copyright a trash can. Ditto. Or to sue for copying what you yourself copied, or to sue for such awful copying as Microsoft had done at the time Apple started their lawsuit. (I used Windows about that time, & I *could not* figure out how to resize a window left-right. No icon interface in their Finder-equivalent, either.) Comment from David Letterman on the Xerox suit: "Xerox sues somebody for copying?" | Francis Stracke | My opinions are my own. I don't steal them.| | Department of Mathematics |=============================================| | University of Chicago | Until you stalk and overrun, | | francis@zaphod.uchicago.edu | you can't devour anyone. -- Hobbes |