Re: [OFFTOPIC] Gnumenclature was Re: IBM, was never Re: Linux Kernel

Jamie Lokier (lkd@tantalophile.demon.co.uk)
Wed, 6 Jan 1999 12:37:14 +0000

On Tue, Jan 05, 1999 at 03:47:34AM -0500, chorgain@escape.com wrote:
> I'm wondering is how is that GNU "owns" those utils... from recent grep on
> gcc Changelog I didn't see much contributed by GNU(mainly rms)besides
> bunch of configuration changes to change unknown to pc and linux to
> linux-guess in config.guess and few changes in getloadavg.c. So how does
> GNU owns those utils, I thought the point of GNU was that nobody owned
> something exculsively.

Well GNU started GCC and paid for much of its development until
recently, so I would say it is their project. They also own the
copyright on GCC and much of the other "GNU" utils, by dint of legal
papers signed by the authors.

Also, even though most of the recent GCC work didn't come from the FSF,
it builds on older work that did, and much of the older work is still in
use today.

GCC certainly wouldn't exist without RMS & GNU. Something else would, I
daresay. IMO, without GNU, Linux (the system) would feel very different
and be much further behind technologically than it is. Even if actual
GNU code is "only" 35% of the system now. IMO, the original GNU project
has been entirely successful.

-- Jamie

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