GNU & A/UX

[Richard Michael Todd]

In article <9365 at polya.Stanford.EDU> shaff at Sesame.Stanford.EDU (Mike Shaff) writes:
>ciao,
>
>What follows below was snarfed from prep.ai.mit.edu (the GNU machine) the file
>was entitled APPLE.  I am curious for the reactions of the "A/UX" community
>and Apple people (speaking either as individuals or company representatives).
>I personally feel that I am in a most unenviable position: philosophically I
>agree with RMS, however I feel that the person who gets zapped is the user
>(again).  Comments anyone?
   This has been brought up before several times on various newsgroups.  
Personally, I can see why RMS is so upset, since he is in the business of
cloning AT&T's "look and feel".  However, since I've got a Mac, I'm the one
who gets shafted, not Apple.  And there really aren't any alternatives out
there for the serious Unix user.  None of the 386 systems are suitable because
they don't have Berkeley job control, Berkeley networking, or Berkeley 
*anything*.  Sun-3 is a nice machine and has a nice Unix port, but they want
more for their color monitor than I paid for my entire system. I'm not rich
enough to afford ideological purity in this battle.
   And, of course, the fact that RMS doesn't support ports of GNU products
to A/UX doesn't mean that ports can't be done, and supported over this
network.  Anybody wanting a version of GNU Tar that works on A/UX, let me
know.  Reportedly Paul Traina's working on a port of GCC to A/UX.  

>Newspapers report that Macintosh clones will be available soon.  If
>you must buy a Macintosh-like machine, buy a clone.  Don't feed the
>lawyers!
I wonder what RMS thinks of the recently announced Mac clone, with the
EEPROMS that automatically dump themselves if anyone tries to copy the ROMS
in any way.  *I* think it's the silliest idea in copy protection in the entire
decade.  Obviously these people have been watching too many Mission:Impossible
reruns ("this machine will self-destruct in 5 seconds"). I can just imagine 
the fun a mischief-inclined student could have with a lab full of these 
things and a 3-line C program to read the ROMS out sequentially.  Sheesh.  
Where is Stupid People's Court when you need it...
-- 
Richard Todd	Fido:1:147/1     USSnail:820 Annie Court,Norman OK 73069
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"Never re-invent the wheel unnecessarily; yours may have corners."-henry at utzoo