Re: configure script

[D. Goel]

Moreover, people lose sight of the fact that the project was always to
be called GNU (GNU's not unix..), back when RMS started it in 83..
back when not many would help out because things weren't 'convenient'
enough for them[1].  In that era, RMS had to make tough choices.. and
he started out by doing it incrementally.. developing unix-equivalent
tools first rather than write the kernel straightaway.  Those tools
slowly became so ubiquitous, present on several op. systems, that
people 'took them for granted'... and simply forgot all about GNU when
a kernel that fit into the gnu project came along. 



> 
> RMS shamelessly hijacking credit? What a joke... When I was
> talking about this same issue in finnish-language GNU/Linux
> newsgroup (sfnet.atk.linux) one guy even said "RMS is boosting
> his own ego".

These people just don't see it.  Heh, it is linux that's named after
linus--whose ego is that boosting? .  RMS isnt' trying to attach his
name, he is just trying to restore the name that he had always given
his system---GNU.  It was these 'linuxers' that hijacked the 10-year
old name GNU and started calling it linux, when the kernel came out.

> Gods don't needing hijack any credit or boost their
> own egos. Give me a good laugh, try explaining how RMS is
> doing a bad work and how he is hurting computer industry?

RMS, imho, with GPL, GNU, years of work when no one else would,
sometimes without an apartment to live in, is the single persom most
responsible for the idea that imvho, ultimately will win out (because
it makes for a better economic model[2], imvho)---that information
should not have owners.  Even today, he lives on a mere $25K from a
fellowship, and has never accepted any payments from FSF.  This guy
has devoted his life to Free Software, and look what he's getting in
return...  


> 
> RMS might use all available means to make his dream code true, GNU
> Project and GNU Operating System. All of us benefit from this, any
> GPL source code helps us all. Since this is a Good Thing(tm), I
> can't blame RMS for attacking GNU/Linux naming the way he does. He
> has got a point and facts to back it up.

And he is not doing it for any ego-boosting or personal
selfishness---case in point: he is not trying to name it 'richarm',
unlike some kernel-developers who conveniently let 'vendors' rename
the entire GNU system after them.  

Just imagine for a moment doing what RMS did--- jumping on the 'linux'
bandwagon, when absolutely none of it existed.. and you might just
appreciate what he has done for you and me. 

[1] Now that RMS's efforts have made Free Software a viable option,
they want to jump on the bandwagon.  But they want to (proudly!) jump
only on a part of the bandwagon and shamelessly proclaim: "I will use
nonfree when it is better.  I don't care about philosophy, and i don't
care about nomenclature. I just want to use what is most productive
for me (read: what is most convenient for me)."


[2] IMVHO, That nonownership of information (/software) makes a better
economic model for the society is obvious if you consider a simple
model in which a million people share 1 bit of information with
everyone else..  Each now has a million bits of info..  and the total
number of resources is suddenly million times million---a millionfold
of what it used to be.  
And imho, it is being proved by the rapid spread of GPL --- i read
somewhere that 70% of all licenses are now GPL's.



DG   <http://www.glue.umd.edu/~deego/>
-- 
It is only the work of idealists that creates surroundings in which
idealism is no longer necessary to let the good choices prevail.
     -- David Kastrup on 'Free Software vs. Convenient Software'