Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!barmar From: barmar@think.com (Barry Margolin) Newsgroups: comp.windows.x Subject: Re: rms says... Message-ID: <1991Feb1.173358.2570@Think.COM> Date: 1 Feb 91 17:33:58 GMT References: <21327@yunexus.YorkU.CA> <100920286@hpcvlx.cv.hp.com> Sender: news@Think.COM Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA Lines: 20 In article <100920286@hpcvlx.cv.hp.com> ben@hpcvlx.cv.hp.com (Benjamin Ellsworth) writes: >To me, this is just further proof of Mr. Stallman's distance from >reality on this issue. The vast (and I mean VAST) majority of users >don't want the source to X windows. I expect that Stallman would agree that *most* users of any particular piece of software have little use for the source. However, there will almost always be some who do have use for it. In the case of X, they would include hobbyists and researchers who need to port it, sites that need to tailor client applications (perhaps they would need xterm to emulate a different terminal), and programmers who are simply curious about how it works. His goal is that these users should not be hindered. Furthermore, if so few users will actually ask for the source, making it available costs almost nothing, since the service will hardly ever be used. -- Barry Margolin, Thinking Machines Corp. barmar@think.com {uunet,harvard}!think!barmar