Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!YAHI.STANFORD.EDU!tiemann From: tiemann@YAHI.STANFORD.EDU (Michael Tiemann) Newsgroups: gnu.gcc Subject: info-gcc is not a common carrier Message-ID: <8905310749.AA01977@yahi.stanford.edu> Date: 31 May 89 07:49:42 GMT References: Sender: daemon@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Reply-To: tiemann@lurch.stanford.edu Distribution: gnu Organization: GNUs Not Usenet Lines: 21 It is naive, if not selfish, to believe that FSF can further its goals by supporting, in any way, their software on machines built by companies such as Apple. The rationalizations given are shallow, and are very much like the ones given as to why the U.S. should continue to do business with South Africa: while we pour millions of dollars into the pockets of Pretoria, buying diamonds or selling weapons for the purposes of "maintaining influence", we enrich and reward the perpetrators of evil, which only gives them more power to brutalize and exploit the people we claim are being helped by our policies. By supporting GCC on A/UX, we only empower the people who would seek to destroy us. There may be gains which can be seen by microscope, but pull yourself away from the microscope! If we sit there, trying to determine if GCC on A/UX has cost Apple $1000 or $10,000 in lost compiler revenue, they are building a legal jail around us. If we don't look up soon, they will complete that jail, free software will be illegal, and years of hard work and all hopes that sparked it will be locked up forever. In the case of Apple, compromise carries a far greater cost than any benefit it can deliver. Michael