Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!rcbc
From: rcbc@honir.cs.cornell.edu (Robert Cooper)
Newsgroups: gnu.gcc
Subject: Re: more <expletive deleted>
Summary: Really gnu.politics
Message-ID: <28400@cornell.UUCP>
Date: 31 May 89 14:39:53 GMT
References: <9599@polya.Stanford.EDU> <8905310809.AA01988@yahi.stanford.edu>
Sender: nobody@cornell.UUCP
Distribution: gnu
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept. Ithaca NY
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In-reply-to: tiemann@YAHI.STANFORD.EDU's message of 31 May 89 08:09:22 GMT

Originally gnu.gcc was a technical newsgroup for discussion and
announcements about a high quality C compiler. Then it became a forum for
sometimes vitriolic argument about gnu's goals and the restrictive business
practices of some computer corporations. 

Now I see it has become an MIT glee club. Tiemann writes:

                         ...  Computers may well have remained top-secret
        technology, built by the few for the few, but people at MIT brought
        them out of the closet and into the hands of the people--you and me.
        Were it not for the MIT hackers, computers would have remained toys of
        the military that paid for them.  MIT opened up computing.  They made
        it possible for us to play with, then to study, then to work
        computers. ...

Actually forget glee club, try religon. And just how much money does MIT
get from the military/industrial complex anyway?

Finally I think the gnu people should realize a couple of things:

 o Complaining further about Apple on this newsgroup is probably having no
   effect. Most of the people who (used to) read gnu.gcc have got the message,
   and in any case they probably do not include most of the potential Apple
   customers. 

 o Picketting Lotus and Apple, signing petitions, writing letters to
  newspapers, or writing to your elected representatives might be more
  effective. 

                                       -- Robert Cooper