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Subject: Re: About compiler optimizations

Author: Matt Taylor

Date: 11:32:18 12/21/02

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On December 21, 2002 at 13:27:48, Vincent Diepeveen wrote:

>On December 20, 2002 at 23:53:16, Walter Faxon wrote:
>
>>On December 20, 2002 at 16:52:19, Vincent Diepeveen wrote:
>>
>><snip>
>>>m$ decision is to earn more money on it seemingly. Well that is their
>>>choice. It isn't mine to actually pay for all that. gcc is for free :)
>><snip>
>>
>>
>>Freedom isn't free!  All chess programmers should please consider giving a
>>donation to the Free Software Foundation which sponsors gcc and many other
>>useful software tools.
>>
>>http://www.gnu.org/home.html
>
>Comon get real. They want to do things for free. That's their choice.
>Not mine. If you want to pay something then give it to the
>programmers directly. Don't give it to some foundation that swallows
>it! That's far more worthless than paying $1 million 'organisation
>costs' to organize a computerchess worldchampionship!

Think about what you just said: "They want to do things for free."

Nothing in life is free. Somebody else is paying for software that you get for
free. Somebody has to maintain the project in their own personal time, somebody
has to host it, etc. Bandwidth costs are exorbitant. You think I want to pay for
a T1 just so people can download free software from me? No.

>This is a very bad request for money for a wrong goal! If they can't
>do it for free then don't say free software works!!

Free software works when you don't support it or distribute it. That is usually
where my projects end up: vaporware. The source is available, and anyone
interested can play with it, but I wouldn't touch it unless I were paid to do
so.

>Why doesn't FSF go to IBM and propose creating a competitative product
>to challenge windows? IBM is said to support linux a lot. If so how much
>didn't FSF get enough from them already?

Lindows is already doing that, though it is not free. There are a number of
Windows emulators (wine notably), but my experiences with them have left much to
be desired. Granted the last time I used them was over 2 years ago.

The *nix community in general has little interest in challenging Windows. A lot
of linux-type people I talk to have a superiority complex and seem to think I'm
an inferior person because I use Windows at all. Slashdot is a good example.
Amusingly, I use Solaris, Linux, and Windows NT on a daily basis, but that's not
the point. The point is that Unix has to become Windows to sell like Windows,
and most Unix people don't want to see that happen.

That's really an irrelevant topic of discussion, however.

>In short, if i contribute a change to gnu software,
>how do i ever see something of that money to pay for my time?
>
>Reality is. No one sees money. So why pay some kind of weird organisation?

Reality: you've already benefitted from money other people have fronted. If you
don't want to donate, don't donate. Don't discourage other people from
supporting the FSF.

-Matt



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