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Xref: sserve comp.os.linux:35453 comp.os.386bsd.questions:1855 Newsgroups: comp.os.linux,comp.os.386bsd.questions Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!hp9000.csc.cuhk.hk!saimiri.primate.wisc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!news.cs.columbia.edu!news!bm From: bm@shadow.columbia.edu (Blair MacIntyre) Subject: Re: Summary of Linux vs. 386BSD vs. Commercial Unixes In-Reply-To: cc_paul@rcvie.co.at's message of Tue, 20 Apr 1993 13:57:23 GMT Message-ID: <C5wFnJ.KMt@cs.columbia.edu> Sender: news@cs.columbia.edu (The Daily News) Reply-To: Blair MacIntyre <bm@cs.columbia.edu> Organization: Columbia University References: <C5poEp.8Jw@kithrup.com> <C5qCnn.5Kw@sugar.neosoft.com> <D87-MAL.93Apr19230114@byse.nada.kth.se> <1993Apr20.135723.752@rcvie.co.at> Date: Thu, 22 Apr 1993 19:04:30 GMT Lines: 44 >>>>> On Tue, 20 Apr 1993 13:57:23 GMT, cc_paul@rcvie.co.at (Wolf Paul) said: Wolf> In article <D87-MAL.93Apr19230114@byse.nada.kth.se> Wolf> d87-mal@byse.nada.kth.se (Mats Löfkvist) writes: > (In reply to a complaint about the GNU GPL) > >Why is it so hard to understand that code from the FSF comes with a licence >you have to accept if you want to use it? Is it because the code "is there" >in front of you, looking so available? Most people annoyed by the GPL terms >sounds like children in a candy store when they are told the candy is not >free to take just because it is lying there under their noses. Wolf> Maybe because chief proponents of the FSF assume such a morally superior, Wolf> holier-than-thou attitude about their supposedly "free" software which Wolf> in reality isn't free at all but encumbered with a rather complex set Wolf> of rules? I don't know how you define free, but I haven't paid money for any GNU software recently. They never said it was public-domain, they said it was free. As in, no money. As in, no money for the source. All you have to do is not charge people for any modifications you make and let them have the original source. Boy people complain about anything. You charge for software, they say it's too much. You give it to them free, they complain they can't do whatever they damn well please with the source. Next thing you know, people will be complaining that the GNU people won't make custom modifications for them. Wolf> The problem with the candy store you mention above is that it sports a Wolf> great big sign, "Free Candy", and once you're inside you find out that Wolf> that is a bunch of baloney, it isn't free, but has strings Wolf> attached. If you go into the candy store and they are not charging you for it, it's free. If they have strings attached ... well, you don't _have_ to take it. Nobody is forcing you. -- Blair MacIntyre --- bm@cs.columbia.edu --- CS Department, Columbia University "You drive, you kill." --- from the movie "Roadkill"