Re: config.guess and freedom (was: 1.8 and mkdir_p)

[Bruno Haible]

Harlan Stenn wrote in a footnote:
> There are people who think a config.guess output that says:
>
>  i686-pc-linux-gnu
>
> is "normal", while some of us feel that is a particularly useless value and
> would prefer to see something like:
>
>  i686-pc-redhat7.3
>
> instead, just like the original documentation spec'd out.

This would go against the principle of freedom behind Linux and GNU.
One of the basic objectives with Linux is that anyone can make a distribution
of his own. We should continue to support all distributions equally well.
In http://lwn.net/2000/0518/dists.php3 you find a list of 125 of them, and
I'm sure the number has grown since then.

A configure script that has to check for 125 brand names, only for Linux,
is not only unmaintainable, it also limits the freedom to fork a new
distribution.

Bruno