Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!wuarchive!udel!ee.udel.edu From: new@ee.udel.edu (Darren New) Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Re: rms says... Message-ID: <44057@nigel.ee.udel.edu> Date: 7 Feb 91 23:20:11 GMT References: <7459@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU> <44020@nigel.ee.udel.edu> Sender: usenet@ee.udel.edu Organization: University of Delaware Lines: 40 Nntp-Posting-Host: snow-white.ee.udel.edu In article mwm@pa.dec.com (Mike (My Watch Has Windows) Meyer) writes: > and PRIMARILY, he states something along the lines of "I don't like > people who take something free, like TeX, modify it to work better or > on a different computer, and then sell it, since TeX is free." > >I suspect he never said any such thing (you got an actual quote >somewhere?), but said that he didn't like people taking free software, >and turning it into something proprietary. There is a quote along those lines in the GNU Emacs manual I borrowed from somebody when I wrote this. The example used was TeX. I don't remember whether he specifically wrote "proprietary" or "selling" but I could look it up and give the exact quote. >it's a recasting of the same philosophy in different >terms - that software should be free to anyone who wants it. Except that when it really is free, instead of controlled by GPL, it doesn't get written. See China, for an example. >The inability to protect design [IBM BIOS]- at least in this case - was a major >benefit to society. IBM clones are a benefit? :-) :-) :-) Actually, IBM could have easily put all the clone manufacturers out of business, as they have patents on the keyboard interface, the 8087 interface, and several other critical hardware components that much software depends on. The fact that they failed to enforce these patents is a business decision that IBM chose for themselves. Again, Pheonix didn't try to take a high moral stand by saying "IBM clones should be cheap so we will do this." Pheonix said "This makes good business sense and we think we can get away with it." This does not bother me (much). -- --- Darren New --- Grad Student --- CIS --- Univ. of Delaware --- ----- Network Protocols, Graphics, Programming Languages, Formal Description Techniques (esp. Estelle), Coffee, Amigas ----- =+=+=+ Let GROPE be an N-tuple where ... +=+=+=