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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!qt.cs.utexas.edu!yale.edu!cmcl2!panix!tls From: tls@panix.com (Thor Lancelot Simon) Subject: Re: Restrictions on free UNIX / 386BSD (Re: selling 386BSD) Message-ID: <1992Aug18.065641.4877@panix.com> Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 06:56:41 GMT References: <9208162341.30@rmkhome.UUCP> <PHR.92Aug17112028@soda.berkeley.edu> <9208171721.29@rmkhome.UUCP> Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix & Internet, NYC Lines: 34 In article <9208171721.29@rmkhome.UUCP> rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly) writes: >In article <PHR.92Aug17112028@soda.berkeley.edu> phr@soda.berkeley.edu (Paul Rubin) writes: >> >... Next, Sun (In Solaris 2), and I believe MIPS ship GCC with >> >their products, in some cases as the primary compilers. This >> >sort of distribution is not practical for an operating system. >> >> And from reading comp.unix.solaris, I get the idea that a number >> of development shops will buy compilers for Solaris 2.0 because of >> the GNU Copyleft. >> >>The copyleft does not prevent development shops from using GCC. >>If they think it does, they haven't been paying attention, or they are >>letting their decisions be controlled by paranoid knee-jerk reactions >>instead of by intelligence. I'm sure this makes Sun happy; there's >>one born every minute, as the saying goes. I don't see this as a >>reason to let Sun and others make proprietary GCC's. I can't see >>any benefit of a non-copyleft GCC that could outweigh sacrificing >>the hundreds of improvements, ports, etc. that people have been >>allowed to contribute because the marketroids they work for weren't >>permitted to grab the improvements for themselves. > >But some lawyers believe that the use of GCC to develop proprietary >applications that are shipped "binary only" may be hazardous to a >companies legal health. The GPL has not been tested deeply in court. And I suppose you don't know about the special license, *not* the ordinary GPL, under which the GNU libraries and similar portions of GCC are distributed. Nice try. -- Thor Lancelot Simon tls@panix.COM "Oh, you have wounded me! I have very few prejudices, actually. The biggest problem is that I am intolerant of fools. That is why I have such a low tolerance level for Libertarians." -- Jim McMaster