Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!shelby!agate!ucbvax!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!bu-cs!bucsb!ckd From: ckd@bucsb.UUCP (Christopher Davis) Newsgroups: gnu.gcc Subject: (LONG) Re: GNU, Philosophy, Apple, Newsgroup owners etc. Summary: my semi-useless two cents Keywords: not gcc, politics, apple, lawsuit, look, feel, hear, smell, taste Message-ID: <2616@bucsb.UUCP> Date: 10 Jun 89 08:00:51 GMT References: <6847@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> Reply-To: ckd@bucsb.bu.edu (Christopher K Davis) Followup-To: gnu.gcc Distribution: gnu Organization: Boston University School of Management Lines: 87 ***THIS IS NOT GCC RELATED. THERE IS NO APPROPRIATE NEWSGROUP YET.*** ***FEEL FREE TO IGNORE THIS IF YOU'RE WORKING ON GCC AND NOT POLITICS.*** In article <6847@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> spaf@uther.cs.purdue.edu (Gene Spafford) writes: - I don't claim to be impartial, nor do I claim extraordinary vision, - but I do think some things are being overlooked or misinterpreted. - And I know for sure that flaming back and forth in a newsgroup or - mailing list never resolves any points of contention -- it merely - escalates. Spaf's preceding paragraph applies to me in its entirety. [...] - 2) Apple was instrumental in the development of cheap personal - computers, and that may be more important in the long run than - anything the hackers at MIT ever did. Maybe. Neither institution is - likely to disappear anytime soon, however, and both are assured of - significant footnotes in the history books. It's important not to - forgot that Apple's role in producing the "volkscomputer" has, in some - ways, enabled this whole discussion to take place. I can agree here. I still own an Apple ][+, and (IMHO) that machine *was* personal computing at the time. [And the reference manuals have ROM source. Hmm. Sounds like something that... oh... never mind. :-) ] At the time, *IT* was a political statement against "Big Blue Fascism" :-). - 3) I doubt many people are buying Macs for A/UX -- the Mac OS and - applications are why people buy Macs, coupled with price and reputation - for quality. [...] That's why I bought my Mac Plus--before [to forestall charges of ideological impurity :-) ] The Lawsuit. In fact, I'm using it right now--using Red Ryder (which was shareware for an incredibly long time before it went commercial) to use GNU Emacs as my editor for Pnews. I have NOT purchased any Apple h/w since the lawsuit, nor to I plan on it at present (primarily 'cause I'm a broke college student and not due to FSF's boycott :-). - [...] - 4b) Everybody using GNU software should realize that the purpose of - that software is not technical in nature -- it's political. RMS - admitted that here just a few postings back. There are implications - there that users should think through before going gung-ho into the - ranks of the GNU'ers. (I'm having serious second thoughts about GNU - software, and the attitude of some FSF'ers in all this only heightens - my concern. More on that in another article.) One shouldn't join the - skinheads because they have the best parties, nor should one join the - ACLU just because Bush doesn't like them. RMS & others claim if you - buy Apple equipment you are making a political statement; by the same - token, you are making a statement if you use GNU software. Be sure - that you agree with whatever statement you are making. I use both...I must be schizophrenic. :-) Seriously, though, I bought a Mac because it was a tool that I could use effectively. I use GNU Emacs (and bought the manual) because it is a tool that I can use effectively. I do not agree with Apple's lawsuit, **NOR** do I agree with FSF's boycott. I hold my *own* stupid opinions. One of them is that the courts are there to settle things like this, and amicus curiae is there to help them. [The quote from Spaf (lower down) applies.] My (possibly unjustified) opinion: the boycott is aimed at getting Apple, Lotus, etc to drop their lawsuits. All this will do is delay the "day of reckoning." *Legal precedent* will decide this--the way it's supposed to work, right? So let's try to get precedent on our side. (Yes, our side-- I agree with FSF's aims, and disagree with their means.) - 5) Intellectual property laws are rooted in our legal tradition and - established in both common law and the Constitution. If you're - serious about changing the way those work, you should be working - within the system to do something about it. File friend-of-the-court - briefs in the look-and-feel lawsuits. Write to state & federal - legislators explaining why the laws as they are currently written are - a bad thing. Write some articles in well-circulated journals - explaining your position. Stage a letter-writing campaign to the - president of Apple. Posting to the mailing list, or producing a - compiler that a few thousand home hobbyists use is not going to - influence the courts a whole hell of a lot...or the lawyers. - - -- - Gene Spafford - NSF/Purdue/U of Florida Software Engineering Research Center, - Dept. of Computer Sciences, Purdue University, W. Lafayette IN 47907-2004 - Internet: spaf@cs.purdue.edu uucp: ...!{decwrl,gatech,ucbvax}!purdue!spaf In a closing note: I really think there needs to be a gnu.d, or a gnu.whygnu or whatever one wants to call it...this is outrageously silly.-- Chris Davis ! ckd@{bu-pub,bucsb,bucsf}.bu.edu ! Disclaimer: you know. Student Consultant ! smghy6c@buacca.{bitnet, bu.edu} ! I don't agree with BU Boston University ! ckd@bucsb.UUCP ! and they reciprocate. -- "I think I need a really good quote to put in my .signature." CKD --