Re: what is the current status of GPL v3

[David Kastrup]

"Alfred M. Szmidt" <ams@gnu.org> writes:

>    > GNU isn't, it is a operating system, a single entity, developed by
>    > the FSF.
>
>    Since when is X11 developed by the FSF?
>
> What does a protocol have to do with this?  

You are making a spectacle of yourself again.  The X Windows system
consists of an X server and client libraries communicating via a
network transparent protocol.  The X server and the client libraries
are part of every GNU workstation, and certainly are not developed by
the FSF.

>    You are making a spectacle of yourself again.  There is no need to
>    contradict _everything_ Alexander says.
>
> From the GNU project web page:
>
> | The GNU Project was launched in 1984 to develop a complete UNIX
> | like operating system which is free software: the GNU system (GNU
> | is a recursive acronym for "GNU's Not UNIX"; it is pronounced
> | guh-noo, like canoe.)

There is a difference between assembling a system, and developing its
components.  The FSF certainly does not develop X11.

> From the GNU manifest:
>
> | GNU, which stands for Gnu's Not Unix, is the name for the complete
> | Unix-compatible software system which I am writing so that I can
> | give it away free to everyone who can use it.(1) Several other
> | volunteers are helping me.  Contributions of time, money, programs
> | and equipment are greatly needed.

Guess what: manifest or not, hero worship or not, Richard has not been
responsible for all of what is subsumed into a GNU system.  And if you
actually believe that, you are being spectacularly dense.  Just read
all the copyright notices.

>    There are those rare moments in between where he accidentally
>    happens to be correct about something.
>
> This isn't one of those times.  There is a common confusion around,
> among GNU hackers too it seems, that GNU is a bunch of tools, it
> isn't.  It is a single entity, an operating system.

Put together as a compilation of separate independent and
interoperating components, more than half of which are developed
outside of the control of the FSF (like BSDlite, the X11 system and
other stuff).

And yes, assembling all those components into one operating system
meets the criteria of "compilation": the individual copyrights are
retained.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum