GNU + BSD = ?

[Chet Ramey]

Here's some of what Richard Stallman has to say about the next version
of BSD Unix.  Apparently the GNU versions of make, awk, and sh will
appear in the next release from Berkeley.

In the part of the message I omitted, he talks about libraries
(apparently a full set), a mailer to replace sendmail (but what are
the restrictions on sendmail?  I thought you could always FTP the
latest version from Berkeley, and that it contained no AT&T code to
begin with), a gprof replacement, and a c++ compiler, most of which
are in final stages of development or beta testing.  He also talks
about using the mach kernel from CMU after the Berkeley code that is
not declared free is rewritten.

Comments?


------------------------Included Message------------------------------
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 88 17:20:13 EST
From: Richard Stallman <rms at wheaties.ai.mit.edu>
Subject: Latest GNUs

Here is a summary of news from the GNU project.

* Some parts of BSD are becoming free.

After years of urging from us and others, the people who maintain
Berkeley Unix have decided to release various parts of it (those which
don't contain AT&T code) separately as free software.  This includes
substantial programs which we hope to use in GNU, such as TCP/IP
support and the C-shell.

* Berkeley and GNU project cooperating.

The next release of Berkeley Unix may contain Make, AWK and SH from the
GNU project instead of those from Unix.

The reason is that they would like to have improvements in these programs
like those in system V.3; but they find the new restrictions on V.3
licenses unpalatable.  Both we and they hope they never get a V.3 license.
We may help them avoid it by providing alternative software.

GNU Make already supports the system V features; a volunteer is now writing
the extensions for Gawk.

* Shell disappointment.

For a year and a half, the GNU shell was "just about done".  The author
made repeated promises to deliver what he had done, and never kept them.

Finally I could no longer believe he would ever deliver anything.

So Foundation staff member Brian Fox is now implementing an imitation
of the Bourne shell.  Once it is done, we will extend it with the
features of the Korn shell, thus coming to Berkeley's aid.

[The rest of the message (225+ lines) omitted for brevity.  RMS goes  ]
[on to discuss the use of the MACH kernel for GNU, and the additional ]
[software mentioned above.  Contact info-gnu-request at prep.ai.mit.edu  ]
[for more information.  I will send a copy of this message to anyone  ]
[who requests it.                                                     ]

_______________________________________________________________________________
| Chet Ramey    chet at mandrill.CWRU.Edu      {cbosgd,decvax,sun}!mandrill!chet |
|									      |
|		  In the end, there can be only one                           |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------