Re: GNUStep: An Apology for Announcing Donation of ProprietarySoftware to the Project

[JW]

At 02:47 PM 12/22/2001 +0100, you wrote:
>On Sat, 22 Dec 2001 02:33:29 +0100
>Fred Kiefer <FredKiefer@gmx.de> wrote:
>> I don't want to add more mails to this discussion, I just want to state
>> that I can't agree more to what Nicola wrote. I would not be working on
>> GNUstep if this project wasn't under LGPL and this is more important
>
>LGPL and GNU is not the same thing. The point which disappoints me is
>that GNU seems to be so 'extreme' in its position. If this donation can help
>the GNUstep project and if the company made their donation exactly because of
>that, then I just fail to see why such a donation should be 'bad per se'. 

The donation is not 'bad per se'. The unnecessary proclamation of a GNU project 
utilizing non-Free software is what was 'bad per se'.

>This
>is why I am disappointed, it is not LGPL or GPL or the annoying 'free vs closed
>software discussion'. It is the fact the Adam has to write an email to 
>apologize
>for accepting a donation which was intended to help all of us, in the end! 

Adam did not _have_ to apologize. IMHO sending out an "official" retraction 
looked worse then the original message did, though in a certain sense I 
understand that Adam felt a need to "correct" his original mistake.

>Based on the fact that most of the GNU developers use closed sources all day
>anyway, ie. the bios, the micro code in their CPUs and so on, this looks very
>cynical (and wrong) to me.
>
>-Phil
>-- 
>Philippe C.D. Robert
>Software Engineer
>Silicon Graphics, Inc.

----------------------------------------------------
Jonathan Wilson
System Administrator

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