Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!nuchat!sugar!peter
From: peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: The GNU Manifesto
Message-ID: <1351@sugar.UUCP>
Date: 4 Jan 88 12:02:08 GMT
References: <153@mozart.UUCP>
Organization: Sugar Land UNIX - Houston, TX
Lines: 68

In article <153@mozart.UUCP>, rosalia@mozart.UUCP (Mark Galassi) writes:
> 
>                         The GNU Manifesto
> 
> Copyright (C) 1985 Richard M. Stallman (Copying permission notice at the end.)

I won't comment on the "software terrorist" stuff at the end, except to say
that it's a little out of touch with reality. Other people have already
spent enough time rebutting this odious comparison. On the other hand:

> What's GNU?  Gnu's Not Unix!

Very true. GNU is even less in keeping with the spirit of UNIX than SysV
and 4BSD are... and that's saying something. It's also not UNIX because...

it doesn't exist. It probably will exist one day, but right now there is
no such thing as GNU. There are a few very large programs out there that
are supposed to have come from the GNU project, none of which will fit on
any machine an individual can hope to own.

> GNU will be able to run Unix programs, but will not be identical to Unix.

Here's the beef...

> We will make all improvements that are convenient, based on our experience
> with other operating systems.  In particular, we plan to have:

> longer filenames

Good idea.

> file version numbers

A bad idea. Firstly this capability already exists in the form of SCCS,
secondly it increases the complexity of the system. You suddenly need
more complex file names (one of UNIX' great features is that a file name
is just a name with no internal organisation).

> a crashproof file system

Nice idea. Pretty common these days. I can't recall the last time I lost a
file to a UNIX system crash.

> filename completion perhaps

Nice bell.

> terminal-independent display support

You mean curses?

> and perhaps eventually a Lisp-based window system...

[ or X-Windows ]

What? No lightweight processes? No real-time support? Doesn't sound like
it's much (if any) of an improvement over UNIX.

> GNU is aimed initially at machines in the 68000/16000 class with virtual
> memory, because they are the easiest machines to make it run on.  The extra
> effort to make it run on smaller machines will be left to someone who wants
> to use it on them.

And in the meantime Minix is already working on machines that will never fit
GNU.
-- 
-- Peter da Silva  `-_-'  ...!hoptoad!academ!uhnix1!sugar!peter
-- Disclaimer: These U aren't mere opinions... these are *values*.