Date: Sat, 10 Apr 1999 23:52:24 -0400 From: Laurence Berland <stuyman@confusion.net> To: jef53313@bayou.uh.edu Cc: advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Stallman takes credit for BSD? Message-ID: <37101C78.52CB80C6@confusion.net> References: <Pine.BSF.4.05.9904102209570.77613-100000@fosburgh.dyndns.org>
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Not quite the impression I get from that. It gives me the impression that BSD developed independently, but that it uses some GNU software. That is true. It gives me the opinion that the GNU operating system (Debian GNU/Linux or the now semi-functional GNU/Hurd) uses some BSD stuff. It also makes the claim that the BSD people were inspired by GNU. That may be true, I dont know, maybe someone like Jordan or David would let us know on that one? It does seem a bit misleading, since I had to read it three times to get some sort of an idea of just how much Stallman is taking credit for, and at first glance it could hurt FreeBSD, but I'm not sure. Jonathan Fosburgh wrote: > I found the following on the FSF website: > > Aside from GNU, one other project has independently produced a free > Unix-like operating system. This system is known as BSD, and it was > developed at UC Berkeley. The BSD developers were inspired by the example > of the GNU Project, and occasionally encouraged by GNU activists, but > their actual work had little overlap with GNU. BSD systems today use some > GNU software, just as the GNU system and its variants use some BSD > software; but taken as wholes, they are two different systems which > evolved separately. A free operating system that exists today is almost > certainly either a variant of the GNU system, or a kind of BSD system. > > The page is: http://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html > > Is Stallman taking credit for the creation of BSD? Or is he taking > credit for the BSD derivatives, FreeBSD included. Either way, this > paragraph is certainly misleading and possibly intentionally so. The > implication that there is more in common between BSD and GNU than there > truly is. It would seem to me that this is a PR problem for us, since > more people, unfortunately, are likely to read the FSF webpages (and I > got to think page originally from www.gnome.org) than FreeBSD's at this > time, and it might cause people to think BSD is a clone of GNU rather > than BSD being a derivative of UNIX. Opinions? > > -- > Jonathan Fosburgh > -- Laurence Berland, Stuyvesant HS Debate <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Windows 98: n. useless extension to a minor patch release for 32-bit extensions and a graphical shell for a 16-bit patch to an 8-bit operating system originally coded for a 4-bit microprocessor, written by a 2-bit company that can't stand for 1 bit of competition. http://stuy.debate.net icq #7434346 aol imer E1101 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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