Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!ucla-cs!ucla-ma!news From: barry@pico.math.ucla.edu (Barry Merriman) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: FSF NeXTstep Message-ID: <1991May11.222548.14038@math.ucla.edu> Date: 11 May 91 22:25:48 GMT Sender: news@math.ucla.edu Distribution: na Organization: UCLA Dept. of Math, UCLA Inst. for Fusion and Plasma Research Lines: 63 Here is a copy of the letter I sent to Dr. Ron Weissman, Director of Higher Ed. at NeXT (ronald_weissman@next.com): ---------------------------------------------------------- To: Ronald_Weissman@NeXT.COM Subject: freely available NeXTStep Dr. Weissman: I would like to see NeXTStep made freely available, for example through the Free Software Foundation (FSF), under a GNU-like public license. If NeXTStep were freely and conveniently available, it would soon be ported to a large class of machines (as has occurred for all other GNU/FSF software); then many more people could run and develop NeXTStep apps, benefitting both users and developers. Of course NeXT benefits too, since they have the premier hardware/software platform for running NeXTStep (not to mention all the positive publicity this gift would generate). But it is important to act on this soon, before NeXTStep loses its edge over other GUI's, particularly X. The innovative features of NeXTStep (excellent development environment, user friendly interface to Unix, object orientation, quality styling, etc) are all being copied by other window systems (for example, there are now about a dozen Interface Builder-like programs for X/Motif). In a few years, the gap will have narrowed to the point where NeXTStep would not spread rapidly even if it were free---at that point, the potential gain of free availability is lost. I realize there are technical/licensing obstacles to releasing NeXTStep, such as: (1) NeXTStep needs to run on top of Mach OS, Objective C (2) NeXTStep needs Display PostScript. but (1)' Mach & Objective C are going to be available from the FSF, and (2)' the GNU project is well on the way to completeing Display GhostScript, a freely available equivalent of Display PostScript. So it seems these barriers could be overcome; more creative solutions may also be possible e.g. perhaps NeXT can simply distribute NeXTStep under the GNU General Public License. I, and many other NeXT supporters, would like to see the issue of freely distributing NeXTStep receive timely attention, hopefully prior to releasing 3.0. I think NeXTStep has fulfilled its proprietary mission, and can best serve us in future as a freely available, widely used environment. Thank you for your consideration, Dr. Barry Merriman UCLA Dept. of Math UCLA Inst. for Fusion and Plasma Research barry@math.ucla.edu (Internet) -- Barry Merriman UCLA Dept. of Math UCLA Inst. for Fusion and Plasma Research barry@math.ucla.edu (Internet)