Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 22:12:27 +0300 From: Anatoly Vorobey <mellon@pobox.com> To: "Thomas M. Sommers" <tms2@mail.ptd.net> Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Stallman now claims authorship of Linux Message-ID: <20010424221227.A10177@happy.checkpoint.com> In-Reply-To: <3ADCEACD.118161C@mail.ptd.net>; from tms2@mail.ptd.net on Tue, Apr 17, 2001 at 09:15:57PM -0400 References: <Pine.BSO.4.21.0104160733390.11039-100000@aphex.newgold.net> <3ADBACF9.E7E3419@mail.ptd.net> <20010417201150.A60285@happy.checkpoint.com> <3ADCEACD.118161C@mail.ptd.net>
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On Tue, Apr 17, 2001 at 09:15:57PM -0400, Thomas M. Sommers wrote: > > On Mon, Apr 16, 2001 at 10:39:53PM -0400, Thomas M. Sommers wrote: > > > On http://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html Stallman say, "The BSD developers were inspired to make their work free software by the example of the GNU Project ... ." But > > > on http://www.gnu.org/ he also says, "The GNU Project was launched in 1984 ... ." Since the first Berkeley tape was sent out in 1978, it seems Mr. Stallman has also > > > invented time travel. > > > > The first freely redistributable BSD code was the Networking Release 1, of > > 1989. > > But that was not the first BSD release that was distributed essentially for free, even if only to those who had an AT&T license already. It is not the case, as Stallman > suggests, that the people at Berkeley were keeping their software secret until he came along, and showed them the path of righteousness. Stallman does not suggest that. He suggests that BSD developers were inspired by GNU to make their work *free software*, rather than merely free. He is not talking about cost (nor was Berkeley software distributed for free in terms of cost), he's talking about freedom of use, as he usually does; and Berkeley code was *not* free to redistribute before 1989, so it was not free software. Of course, if you are hell-bent on demonizing Stallman, you can come up with lots of entertaining theories about what he "suggests". But why do that? -- Anatoly Vorobey, mellon@pobox.com http://pobox.com/~mellon/ "Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly" - G.K.Chesterton To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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