Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2000 17:10:40 -0700 From: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> To: Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com> Cc: tlambert@primenet.com (Terry Lambert), freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG, freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Here is what IBM thinks about using FreeBSD on their newer Message-ID: <4.3.2.7.2.20001130170310.049eb740@localhost> In-Reply-To: <200011300548.WAA05850@usr08.primenet.com> References: <4.3.2.7.2.20001129121021.049b31b0@localhost>
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At 10:48 PM 11/29/2000, Terry Lambert wrote: >> It doesn't seem to me that this would avoid the problems >> you mentioned earlier. GPLed code is still infectious. > >Only if you link against it. When was the last time you >linked against "grep"? In this case, it's infectious in a different way: It is eliminating truly free alternatives. Use it, and you are facilitating another prong of the GPL agenda: to snuff out other options. The fact that FreeBSD does not provide a non-GPLed grep which is BSD-licensed means that the FSF has succeeded. Also, proponents of the GPL are now opting for an expanded requirement based on the notion of "performance for profit." Just running the code in a situation where you made money from it would trigger a requirement to forfeit one's work. >> I understand embedded systems very well -- that's one of the >> things I do. However, as we all know, selection is a much >> less powerful paradigm than specification, and fixing a >> box or using it to its full potential often requires the >> power of a command line. What's more, the strategic UI code >> almost certainly calls on such utilities to do its work and >> therefore depends upon them. > >People who needed access to a command line, and could actually >use one, were such access granted, were not in our target >market. Ah, but I'm sure that the scripts that run your GUI activate command line utilities behind the scenes -- including, most likely, ones like grep. >There is a Ricoh photocopier and a Ricoh document capture >device, both based on FreeBSD. I rather seriously doubt >that they ship the code in such a state that you could get >a command line, period. I'll have to check with Steve Savitzky on this. (He's a strong open source advocate within Ricoh and may have driven this choice.) My guess is that you can get a command line for the purpose of servicing the machine, perhaps via a TTY port inside the case. But that's not the point. Even if YOU can't get the command line, I'll bet their GUI invokes command line utilities. --Brett To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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