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Date:      Fri, 28 Jan 2000 00:02:55 +0100 (CET)
From:      Marc Schneiders <marc@oldserver.demon.nl>
To:        Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com>
Cc:        Jonathon McKitrick <jcm@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org>, chat@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: kern/13644
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.10.10001272136270.11273-100000@propro.oldserver.demon.nl>
In-Reply-To: <38908586.A6694C36@softweyr.com>

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On Thu, 27 Jan 2000, Wes Peters wrote:

> Jonathon McKitrick wrote:
> > 
> > On Thu, 27 Jan 2000, Marc Schneiders wrote:
> > 
> > >I just happen to have bought an emacs book yesterday and read a bit. I
> > >have two things that I cannot get clear for myself:
> > >
> > >1. Is it 'done' on BSD? The book gave me the idea that emacs is a real
> > >GNU thing, so much 'hallelujah' in it. I don't mind that, but wouldn't
> > >like to jump into learning it all, if it isn't really supported in
> > >BSD-circles. And I want to be politically correct of course :-)
> > 
> > I just realized what you are getting at.  I was wondering the same
> > thing.  Without starting a flame war, if Stallman represents and
> > advances the polar opposite of what the BSD license represents, can we
> > still support his product so heartily?  SOme people go to the extreme
> > of not using programs like AbiWord simply because they are
> > GPLed.  Others say, 'if you like the program, use it!'  Tough call.
> 
> Different licenses are appropriate for different kinds of software.  
> I personally have no problems with the GPL for applications like Emacs, which
> are an optional part of any system.  Where I don't like the GPL is in the
> operating system itself, which prevents its use in binary-only distributions
> in embedded (or single-purpose) products.
>

Absolutely. Still after the semi-religious introductory chapter of the
Emacs book I got, my first steps, after installing emacs20 from ports,
brought little surprises but merely confirmed my presuppositions. At
the bottom of the opening screen: "For information about the GNU
Project and its goals, type C-h C-p." I shouldn't have done it. "Note
file is write protected" (Same is true for BSD's /COPYRIGHT of course
:-)) Reading a little of Stallmans Manifesto (for those who don't use
Emacs, that's the text you get to see) and being trained as a
theologian originally myself, I got rather interested in the history
of this. Is there a *good* text somewhere about the project's history
and / or Stallman in particular? I mean something not written by a
believer nor by opponents? Something that answers questions like: Is
he a genius? What sort of ethical backgrounds are involved? They look
very like the ethics I was taught in the seventies in a liberal
Catholic secondary school.
I've always been fond of biographies of scholars, those that put them 
in perspective both as men as well as their ideas, achievemnets etc. I
would love a good Stallman biography, I think. Does it exist?

--
Marc Schneiders

marc@venster.nl
marc@oldserver.demon.nl

propro	  9:36pm  up  12 days,  21:25,  load average: 2.09 2.07 2.07





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