Path: utzoo!telly!ddsw1!lll-winken!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!bbn!apple!shebs
From: shebs@Apple.COM (Stanley Todd Shebs)
Newsgroups: gnu.gcc
Subject: Re: GNU's not GNU...
Message-ID: <1082@internal.Apple.COM>
Date: 28 Mar 89 18:12:47 GMT
References: <27674@apple.Apple.COM> <6396@cbmvax.UUCP> <878@itivax.iti.org> <28988@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 27

In article <28988@bu-cs.BU.EDU> gjc@bu-cs.BU.EDU (George J. Carrette) writes:
>
>I think it is funny that people at Apple are actually upset about the FSF
>position on this.

First off, Apple is the second-largest anarchy in the world - it's just
behind Beirut.  Second, every Appleite considers her/himself a visionary;
engineers, beancounters, managers, the janitorial staff.  These two facts have
many consequences.  For instance, it is very hard to get any sort of agreement,
and impossible to resolve major disputes, even if every level of management
concurs on a position.  If the company appears to act with any sort of unity,
it's because most of the employees are behind the action (or in certain 
sensitive cases, a gag order has been imposed...).

With respect to GNU, the only people at Apple who care are the handful of
people doing A/UX development and another handful doing research.  Although
Apple seems to me to have supplanted IBM as the new "evil empire", they're
also the biggest supporter of new (and open) research in the Valley right now, 
and with the current "C/C++ ueber alles" trend, us language researchers can't
be too choosy about corporate purity...

For myself, I understand the FSF position and basically support it, but am
concerned that FSF's "small stick" is probably going to be less effective in
the long run than would the "large carrot".

							stan shebs
							shebs@apple.com