[Fsf-friends] Fighting FUD Agents with Facts

[Mahesh T. Pai]

Ramanraj K said on Mon, Oct 25, 2004 at 05:06:27AM +0530,:

 > I actually came across the Microsoft site that offered gcc for it's
 > UNIX tools. I couldn't believe it when I saw it:

They  really do  not have  a  choice. *nices  require compliance  with
standards, and gcc's compliance with the standards is the best.

 > Microsoft uses open source, despite critical stance

(cough, cough) GCC is _Free_ not merely open source.

Ok. I *AM* a free software zealot. 

 >  > The person i'm trying
 >  > to convince is a hardcore MS fan so i need real evidence of why BSD is
 >  > better than MS products in server environments.
 > 
 >   So if FreeBSD and Open Source are unworthy replacements for Windows
 > how come all these tools are being sold by them?

Actually, this story  is an excellent illustration of  why the GNU GPL
is better  than BSD (the license). If  the GCC were under  a BSD style
free non-copyleft license, customers  would have been left holding yet
another `extension' in their hands. 

-- 
         Mahesh T. Pai    <<>>   http://paivakil.port5.com
Learn from the mistakes of others.
You won't live long enough to make all of them yourself.