On Sat, Dec 15, 2007 at 08:07:19PM -0500, bofh wrote: > On Dec 15, 2007 7:09 PM, Darrin Chandler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > The single benefit of distributing "free" Windows software that comes to > > mind is to introduce a user to the idea that free software can be a > > viable alternative. I can't think of another reason at all. And the $200 > > Walmart Linux PC has already done more in that regard than years of GCC > > and Emacs for Windows. > > I respectfully disagree. Linux was definitely the enabler for this to > happen.
Ok so far... > How much of Linux's success was because of the GPL is something only > historians can tell us, but without FSF/GNU/GPL. Unfortunately, right > at that time, bsd was involved in the AT&T lawsuit, or it could have > been bsd, or bsd/linux. So? You're talking about something else entirely. Read again above where you quoted my words, please. > > So I think the ideological reasons justifying GNU Windows software are > > shaky at best and outright hypocritical at worst, and the pragmatic > > reasons just haven't worked. > > While, as I had mentioned previously, cygwin has stopped me from > buying a linux computer, cygwin has also exposed people to "unix" type > tools. Whether familiarizing users with free tools help them to move > to free OSes is debatable, but I have personally moved people to both > OpenBSD and Linux (as in, make it their primary server/desktop). In my limited experience, cygwin has only enabled people familiar with unix to do a few more unixy things on Windows. This is a loss for giving people a reason to give up non-free software. -- Darrin Chandler | Phoenix BSD User Group | MetaBUG [EMAIL PROTECTED] | http://phxbug.org/ | http://metabug.org/ http://www.stilyagin.com/ | Daemons in the Desert | Global BUG Federation
