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From: "Hr.Ladavac" <lada@ws2301.gud.siemens.co.at>
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Subject: Re: Grand Unified Unix
To: Kees.Koster@nym.sc.philips.com
Date: Mon, 23 Sep 1996 12:46:50 +0200 (MESZ)
Cc: hackers@freebsd.org
In-Reply-To: <2E9776D4395@NLNMG01.nym.sc.philips.com> from "Kees Jan Koster" at Sep 23, 96 08:53:22 am
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E-mail message from Kees Jan Koster contained:
> 
> I guess I will be bombarded with this GPL stuff now, and I don't have 
> it here. Is there anything in this GPL that keeps a major company 
> from actually _using_ gmake and bash? Or, if they publish a chunk of 
> source, expect the recipient to have GNU tools available?-------------------------------------------v-

Internally, no problem.

But you cannot safely make your product dependent on the extensions found
in these because it can be construed that your product is therefore
derived code (there is even a precedent; RMS tried to leverage even the
use of hooks for readline code derivation) and must be delivered in
machine readable source form to anyone who requires it.

This is, of course, very paranoid reading of the GPL.

The other problem is lacking cover-your-ass aspect of unsupported tools.
This aspect is highly valued in the middle and higher management.

/Marino

P.S. this is a strictly personal opinion.  Whether Siemens adheres to these
rules or is even aware of their existence is an entirely different matter.