gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu (08/04/89)
Re: Workstations that come with GNU software The NeXT workstation's cc man page says that cc is a version of gnu_cc extensively modified to support objective C. I am hard-pressed to understand how they can charge money for the NeXT workstation, when the central piece of software was developed by GNU. Isn't this "selling" GNU software?
cck@deneb.ucdavis.edu (Earl H. Kinmonth) (08/06/89)
In article <79700024@p.cs.uiuc.edu> gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu writes: > >Re: Workstations that come with GNU software > >The NeXT workstation's cc man page says that cc is a version of gnu_cc >extensively modified to support objective C. I am hard-pressed to >understand how they can charge money for the NeXT workstation, when >the central piece of software was developed by GNU. Isn't this >"selling" GNU software? I'm an historian, so complex computer-related issues may strain my limited intellectual capabilities, but I find it ~extremely~ difficult to see any justification for your assertion, which I interpret as, value of NeXT = f(value of its c compiler). This is essentially equivalent to saying that value of IBM XT = f(value of its Basic interpreter). Since I'm a mere historian, not a high-paid computer specialist, I'm doubtless venturing into areas where I don't know what I'm talking about, but using what I've got (an historical sense),* I would suggest that the commercial value of the IBM 14*, 16*, 360/*, 370/*, the DEC 11/*, the VAX */*, etc., was ~essentially~ unrelated to ~any one~ piece of software, least of all the C (Fortran, Cobol, Autocoder, or whatever) compiler! Or, to get even more contemporary, how many institutions have bought Crays because they could run ~Fortran~ on them? *This is not just an intellectual (=learned from books) historical sense. My original field was electrical engineering, and I worked my way through graduate school as a programmer on CDC 1604, 3600, Univac 1170, IBM 370/*, etc. systems. As an heuristic exercise, imagine that the NeXT (I hate cutesy names with silly case shifts in them) machine did not have the GNU cc compiler or any other GNU software. Do you seriously think its market value would be zero? If you do, perhaps you should (re)enroll in economics 101, 1a, or whatever!
desnoyer@apple.com (Peter Desnoyers) (08/08/89)
> In article <79700024@p.cs.uiuc.edu> gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu writes: > >The NeXT workstation's cc man page says that cc is a version of gnu_cc > >extensively modified to support objective C. I am hard-pressed to > >understand how they can charge money for the NeXT workstation, when > >the central piece of software was developed by GNU. Isn't this > >"selling" GNU software? Read the license. You CAN sell GNU software. What it does mean (if I interpret some recent postings in gnu.announce correctly) is that the Next C compiler - source and all - will soon become freely distributable. Market effects will make it difficult to sell in competition with free distribution, but that is a different story entirely. flamers please note - this is NOT because it was built with BISON or GCC - it is because it USES the code to GCC directly. The former case is fuzzy, as "fair use" of a library or parser skeleton is rather broad. "Fair use" of the code to a compiler is pretty narrow - I would think it would be limited pretty much to archiving and fixing bugs. Peter Desnoyers Apple ATG (408) 974-4469 disclaimer - I do not speak for the FSF.
ckd@bu-pub.bu.edu (Christopher K Davis) (08/08/89)
On 7 Aug 89 17:46:31 GMT,
desnoyer@apple.com (Peter Desnoyers) said:
^^^^^
Peter> Peter Desnoyers
Peter> Apple ATG
^^^^^
Peter> (408) 974-4469
Peter> disclaimer - I do not speak for the FSF.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This gets the Most Obvious Disclaimer of the Year Award.
-C
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