Re: GNU/Linux
david parsons (o.r.c@p.e.l.l.p.o.r.t.l.a.n.d.o.r.u.s)
4 Apr 1999 11:42:32 -0700
In article <linux.kernel.Pine.LNX.3.96.990404130015.2194C-100000@calypso.view.net.au>,
Michael Talbot-Wilson <mtw@calypso.view.net.au> wrote:
>
>
>On Sat, 3 Apr 1999, Larry McVoy wrote:
>
>> : If this thread is annoying, please imagine what it is like to see an
>> : idealistic project stymied and made ineffective, because people don't
>> : usually give it the credit for what it has done. If you're an
>> : idealist like me, that can ruin your whole decade.
>>
>> I was once reminded, as I was pointing out for the Nth time that I was
>> the guy that dreamed up 100Mbit ethernet, that claiming credit only
>> makes one look foolish and greedy. Seems appropriate here.
>
>It is not quite the same thing, because 100Mbit Ethernet was not a cause,
>and you were not trying to enlist people in an ongoing movement.
>Incidentally and irrelevantly, you probably didn't commit as much of your
>life to it.
>
>The most minimal complete Linux system consists of the kernel, some of the
>utilities in util-linux, a means of remote login and file transfer, a file
>editor, and the means to develop, test, compile and install all of the
>preceding.
>
>We can quibble over the real proprietorship of the copyright, and the
>separate issue of licence under the copyright, for all categories but the
>last. But when we come to real credit for the Linux achievement we should
>admit that Linux would not exist without the last category. Let me make
>that plain: Linux would not exist without Richard Stallman.
Nonsense. GCC may be the best free C compiler out there, but it's
certainly not the only one and it certainly wasn't the only one in
1991. If GCC wasn't around, one of the other free compilers would
have been suitable for the job, unless you're actually stating that
writing a compiler is such a grim horrible job that only a saint
would sacrifice themself to do it.
____
david parsons \bi/ This latter is, of course, nonsense, and offtopic
\/
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