O'pain Software Foundation: (2) Why is it better than AT&T?

[Henry Spencer]

> ... Wake up out there!  If the Hamilton Group and/or the OSF
> really meant what they said, they'd be funding Gnu development.

Uh, Brandon, were you half asleep when you wrote that?  One of the things
HG/OSF explicitly said was "Unix compatible", which GNU won't be.  (This
is a personal prediction, not FSF policy, but it's a prediction I feel
fairly confident about.)  There are also some small philosophical differences
between, say, IBM and RMS that just might get in the way.  The idea of
supporting GNU probably was never even raised, but if it had been, I'm
sure it would have been laughed out of consideration even if the HG/OSF
people had perfectly pure motives.  (Note that I don't claim that they
do, just that their non-support of GNU says nothing about the issue.)

> Certainly, AT&T/Sun isn't the answer -- but if you believe DEC/IBM is,
> you're one heck of a gullible person.
> GNU FOREVER!!!

Certainly AT&Sun and OSF aren't the answer, but if you believe GNU is,
you're one heck of a gullible person.  It's an interesting project that
will at least have useful byproducts (notably the compiler), but seeing
it as the salvation of Unix strikes me as a triumph of enthusiasm and
ideology over rational thought.
-- 
"For perfect safety... sit on a fence|  Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
and watch the birds." --Wilbur Wright| {ihnp4,decvax,uunet!mnetor}!utzoo!henry