Re: [9fans] drawterm / linux

["Thomas Bushnell, BSG" <tb+usenet@becket.net>]

jkw@eecs.harvard.edu (William Josephson) writes:

> And while we're at it, re: GPL nonsense
> (1) it is arrogant to expect a company to
>     give away software in the first place.
>     open standards when they apply, but not code.

If a company doesn't want to make the code free software, that's its
business.  I'm not saying Lucent is immoral or defective, just that
one reason lots of people aren't using Plan 9 is because it comes
encumbered with liberty-destroying provisions.

> (2) don't go around telling people they haven't
>     done enough to make Plan 9 free when you don't
>     know what you're talking about.

I'm saying that the Lucent lawyers haven't made it free.  Whether they
want to make it free or not is their business.  But the fact that they
haven't means that lots of people who would use Plan 9, don't.

As for the patent problems, I still wonder whether Rob Pike has
decided he did understand the applications after all, and if so, if he
might tell the world exactly what is and is not covered by patents in
Plan 9.