Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!bob+ From: bob+@andrew.cmu.edu (Bob Sidebotham) Newsgroups: gnu.gcc Subject: Re: info-gcc is not a common carrier Message-ID: Date: 1 Jun 89 01:56:30 GMT References: , <8905310749.AA01977@yahi.stanford.edu> Distribution: gnu Organization: Information Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA Lines: 36 In-Reply-To: <8905310749.AA01977@yahi.stanford.edu> > Excerpts from ext.nn.gnu.gcc: 31-May-89 info-gcc is not a common ca.. > Michael Tiemann@YAHI.STA (1216) > 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. This is getting ridiculous. Apple is not a racist government grinding the majority black population into the dirt; it does not practice torture--it's simply a company that has made a tremendous success of some very innovative software, trying to keep one step ahead, by methods which may be offensive to some. But I, for one, will be not be happy if Apple goes under. My wife--who is not a computer hacker--uses an Apple computer for her very small desktop publishing business. We appreciate that the Macintosh has provided her with a wonderful environment for doing this work, and that the work she does benefits our community (she does break-even work for a number of community organizations). RMS's work is valuable--but it doesn't replace the immense amount of work Apple and various other companies (such as Letraset, Adboe, Borland) have put into providing an integrated environment that my wife can use (she doesn't want or need Unix--or Gcc, for that matter). If Apple is the enemy of anything, it's the enemy of unimaginative software. It's the enemy of DOS commands and Unix shell's, and line editors, and, ... The world is undeniably better off since Apple's introduction of the Mac in 1984. For this *I* am, at least a little bit, grateful. Bob Sidebotham