From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 22981 invoked by alias); 16 Nov 2004 18:33:40 -0000 Mailing-List: contact gdb-help@sources.redhat.com; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: gdb-owner@sources.redhat.com Received: (qmail 22970 invoked from network); 16 Nov 2004 18:33:35 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO NUTMEG.CAM.ARTIMI.COM) (217.40.111.177) by sourceware.org with SMTP; 16 Nov 2004 18:33:35 -0000 Received: from mace ([192.168.1.25]) by NUTMEG.CAM.ARTIMI.COM with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.211); Tue, 16 Nov 2004 18:32:24 +0000 From: "Dave Korn" To: "'Ian Lance Taylor'" Cc: Subject: RE: GDB is the GNU project's native debugger Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 18:43:00 -0000 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In-Reply-To: Message-ID: X-OriginalArrivalTime: 16 Nov 2004 18:32:24.0218 (UTC) FILETIME=[9DC96FA0:01C4CC0A] X-SW-Source: 2004-11/txt/msg00167.txt.bz2 > -----Original Message----- > From: Ian Lance Taylor > Sent: 16 November 2004 18:11 > "Dave Korn" writes: > > > To my understanding, and correct me if you feel I've > misunderstood, a major > > part of the purpose of the GNU project is to encourage and > evangelise the spread > > of open source, and the strategic method for achieving that > goal is to provide > > free software, in particular a free toolchain, across as > wide a range of > > platforms as possible, > For what it's worth, I believe that is to some degree a > misunderstanding. The goal of the FSF is a completely free system > (this goal has been achieved). This free system is intended to be > superior both technically and philosophically, and thus encourage > people to switch to it. > > Running free tools on non-free systems is interesting only to the > extent that it helps lead to a fully free system. This happens > because it encourages a broader range of people to put resources into > improving the free tools, and thus improving the free system. > However, running free tools on non-free systems is counterproductive > to the extent that they make the non-free systems more usable, and > thus delay the adoption of completely free systems. > > Using the free tools as advertisements of the effectiveness of the GNU > project is not actually a goal of the FSF, contrary to what you > suggest. Hmm, so do you feel that my first para. would have been more near the truth if it had said that the encouraging/evangelising of OSS in general was only a *minor* goal of the gnu project, and that providing free tools on non-free systems was a tactical method rather than strategic goal? > All of the above is of course my beliefs based on what I saw as it > happened, and do not represent any sort of official position by > anybody. You can very certainly me on that one! cheers, DaveK -- Can't think of a witty .sigline today....