[rescue] Re: Being jobless

[Shannon]

On Wed, Jul 30, 2003 at 09:09:24PM -0700, Francisco Javier Mesa-Martinez wrote:

> > No, you are second-guessing history.
> 
> Really? stating historical facts == second-guessing history. What gives?

Yes.  You are saying that without the GPL we would not have a compilers
suite.

I submit that you cannot know that, and the history of the computer
industry shows that problems like that get solved if people want them to
get solved.

Not all of them, since the world isn't perfect, but neither is the GPL.

> Nobody has forced people to use GPL if they desired to release a GNU like

What does that have to do with this thread? Who suggested they would
force it on anyone?

> include GPLed code) if it is written from scratch. So again I just do not
> see the same as whay I can get from GNU, so maybe... just maybe the GPL
> had a tiny bitty itty thing to do with its success (or actual survival).

Or maybe the GPL has held us back from something better?

I have worked in places where very good code was not released BECAUSE of
the GPL.

This happens all the time. It doesn't even matter if their reasons are
not valid, the ambiguity of the GPL *is* a factor to consider. It's also
incompatible with a lot of other licenses.

> thus maybe just maybe there is a reason for that? :) Unlike a race the
> hypothesis you were proposing was not mutually exclusive, i.e. in a race
> there can be only 1 winner, therefore it has nothing to do with this
> discussion.

Winning had nothing to do with the analogy. "building compilers" ==
"building race cars" is what I'm getting at.

The idea that only GNU could have written an alternative to commercial
compilers is like saying that only Ford could have built an alternative
to Porsche.

    Porsche	    commercial compilers
    Ford	    GNU
    Ferrari	    BSD (or other similar license)

> > > > Linux would likely have adopted the BSD toolset, for example.
> > >
> > > Using which compiler? :)
> >
> > One that would have filled the void gcc didn't fill.
> 
> A non existent compiler for an imaginary toolset :) That is a mighty big
> void to fill....

So you think that if gcc never existed, we would not have a compiler
now?

I know the industry is screwed up, but I think we are more resourceful
than that.

-- 
UNIX/Perl/C/Pizza__________________________________shannon at widomaker.com