papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) (01/25/88)
After having seen printed some messages pointing out the supposedly "free" nature of GNU Emacs as opposed to the "shareware/freeware" nature of a variety of programs for the Amiga, which ask for donations, I'd like to point out the fallacy of that argument. The "GNU Emacs availability information" screen, available to everyone with 2 keystrokes, specifically mentions the word "freeware" referring to the way GNU Emacs is being distributed and ASKS FOR A PERSONAL DONATION. Just for the record. -- Marco
tower@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Leonard H. Tower Jr.) (01/26/88)
In article <6450@oberon.USC.EDU> papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) writes: |After having seen printed some messages pointing out the supposedly "free" |nature of GNU Emacs as opposed to the "shareware/freeware" nature of a |variety of programs for the Amiga, which ask for donations, I'd like to point |out the fallacy of that argument. | |The "GNU Emacs availability information" screen, available to everyone with |2 keystrokes, specifically mentions the word "freeware" referring to the way |GNU Emacs is being distributed and ASKS FOR A PERSONAL DONATION. | |Just for the record. | |-- Marco Why not quote what it says, rather than paraphasing it? Also, this excerpt is ~90 lines into the "screen", which is a bit more than 2 keystrokes for most of us. ;-} enjoy -len Quote: GNU Emacs availability information, 16 Sept 1987 Copyright (C) 1986, 1987 Richard M. Stallman Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies of this document provided that the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved. ... Interupt Quote. (text deleted). Continue Quote: If you like GNU Emacs, please express your satisfaction with a donation: send me or the Foundation what you feel Emacs has been worth to you. If you are glad that I developed GNU Emacs and distribute it as freeware, rather than following the obstructive and antisocial practices typical of software developers, reward me for doing so! Your donations will help to support the development of more useful software to be distributed on the same basis as GNU Emacs. Eventually we will have a complete imitation of the Unix operating system, called GNU (Gnu's Not Unix), which will run Unix user programs. For more information on GNU, see the file GNU in this directory. Richard M Stallman Chief GNUisance, President of the Free Software Foundation End Quote.
morgan@brambo.UUCP (Morgan W. Jones) (02/03/88)
In article <6450@oberon.USC.EDU> papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) writes: >The "GNU Emacs availability information" screen, available to everyone with >2 keystrokes, specifically mentions the word "freeware" referring to the way >GNU Emacs is being distributed and ASKS FOR A PERSONAL DONATION. > Yes, GNU asks for a personal donation. It does not, however, make the donation in any way contingent upon using the software, or visa vera. If you read the GNU Status Report, you'll notice that they also ask for donations of hardware or computer time. But again, this is not contingent upon using the software. GNU is simply an organization which has no income. If they want to continue providing excellent software for no charge, someone will have to provide some capital to cover expenses. But in no way do they say "If you use this software, send $x to us". -- Morgan Jones - Bramalea Software Inc. ...!utgpu!telly \ !brambo!morgan ...!{uunet!mnetor, watmath!utai}!lsuc!ncrcan / "These might not even be my opinions, let alone anyone else's."