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From: a...@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: GNU
Message-ID: <1424@ast.cs.vu.nl>
Date: 21 Sep 88 20:45:42 GMT
Sender: a...@cs.vu.nl
Reply-To: a...@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum)
Organization: VU Informatica, Amsterdam
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There has been much discussion about GNU recently. Let me state a couple
of simple facts.
1. Stallman is ideologically opposed to having any part of GNU be sold for
profit. If MINIX 1.3 costs $79.95 without GNU stuff and MINIX 1.4 costs
$79.95 with GNU stuff you and I might conclude that GNU was free. I very
much doubt that Stallman would agree.
2. Without written permission from Stallman, Prentice-Hall would never even
consider including any of his stuff in MINIX. Period. Their lawyers are
extremely careful about respecting other people's copyrights.
3. MINIX 1.3 includes copyrighted software written by others (e.g., ELLE,
dis88). In all cases I have asked for and received written permission from
the copyright owner to include it. If you post something to the net
marked public domain, I may take it if I like it. So may Stallman. If
you mark it as copyrighted, I won't. I suspect Stallman won't either.
4. I hope that future versions of MINIX will continue to run on the PC, AT, and
386. I do not envision a 386-only version (protected mode, etc). You
wouldn't believe how much trouble P-H has with the PC and AT versions. They
have consistently labeled the boxes wrong, sent out wrong ads, and more. If
other people want to make special versions for the 386, with or without GNU,
that's fine, and you should post your doings here, but I doubt that I will
pick up on it.
Andy Tanenbaum (a...@cs.vu.nl)
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!yale!husc6!bu-cs!tower
From: t...@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Leonard H. Tower Jr.)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: GNU
Message-ID: <25064@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Date: 23 Sep 88 18:10:18 GMT
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Reply-To: t...@bu-it.bu.edu (Leonard H. Tower Jr.)
Followup-To: comp.os.minix
Organization: Distributed Systems Group, Boston University,
111 Cummington Street, Boston, MA 02215, USA +1 (617) 353-2780
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In article <1...@ast.cs.vu.nl> a...@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum) writes:
|
|There has been much discussion about GNU recently. Let me state a couple
|of simple facts.
|
|1. Stallman is ideologically opposed to having any part of GNU be sold for
| profit. If MINIX 1.3 costs $79.95 without GNU stuff and MINIX 1.4 costs
| $79.95 with GNU stuff you and I might conclude that GNU was free.
It isn't really a question of profit. The question is whether the
buyer can get the source and be free to modify it and re-distribute it
to anyone.
| I very
| much doubt that Stallman would agree.
I believe you're wrong.
Stallman would agree with you: that the GNU software in the MINIX 1.4
distribution was free as far as you have sketched out your scenario.
GNU software is allowed to be included on the same media as commercial
software, as long as the terms of the GNU Public License are adhered
to for the GNU software and works derived from it.
|2. Without written permission from Stallman, Prentice-Hall would never even
| consider including any of his stuff in MINIX. Period. Their lawyers are
| extremely careful about respecting other people's copyrights.
Stallman, the Free Software Foundation, and/or other holders of the
copyright of a GNU program could be quite willing to sign an agreement
with Prentice-Hall that acknowledged the GNU Public License and gave
Prentice-Hall permission to distribute GNU software.
Stallman has done this in the past for GNU software.
A waste of everyone's time though. The GNU Public License is clear
about redistribution.
enjoy -len
(a.k.a. t...@prep.ai.mit.edu of the GNU Project)