In article <4a807e0e@news.povray.org>,
Warp wrote:

> Nicolas Alvarez <nic### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
>> Debian GNU/kFreeBSD is a GNU variant with the FreeBSD kernel, which is not
>> GPL-licensed.
>
>   Before Sun Microsystems made their Solaris operating system open source,
> was there any free Unix-based operating system out there which was *not*
> based on GNU? Was there even any which was not based on gcc and its system
> libraries?

How much non-gnu must a system be to be non-gnu? I think the answer
here is all BSD systems which were free. At least today, you can run a
BSD system without most GNU software, but it will be a pity to miss
out on a whole lot of good software. For instance, forget the GCC.
But, strictly, I think the BSD systems could run on their own, even if
compiled by GNU.

(*) Changing subject

Although I see no problem in discussing terminology, I must say that
when discussing merits, we defeat the purpose of the Free movements.
They want things to be Free. Most people will agree on the very
fundamental principles; Freedom, Openness, et cetera. Then they fight
on petty issues, and segregate. Then everyone loses.

My most favorite example is the set of DJB tools. In 1996, I think, I
believe qmail was already released. The best mailer around. Until
today, no important system brings it default. The best UNIX mailer,
not included. 

``Of course! It is not Free.'' (Now it is, but it wasn't.) Let's see
what it has always been, though. It has always been best, open, and
allowed anyone to make changes to it through patches, which allows you
to change it entirely. But somehow this was never enough.

On the bright side, such pressure made him change his mind. Many
packages are now public domain, which was the very Right Thing to do.
His other options were BSD or GPL or similar ones. 

(*) The ridiculousness of the BSD license

The BSD license is the most ridiculous one around. It can be called
the superfluous-egotistical-public-domain-license. 

Superfluous. If your software is popular, your name will never really
be disassociated with it. Who is behind tetex, or texlive? No idea.
But Donald Knuth is certainly the tex guy. 

Egotistical. Kill people with my software, but keep my name on it.
Please please please, keep my name on it. I can't bare the liberty of
other people removing my name from my work. 

Public domain. Do whatever you want with it. Such as kill people or
close your derived work. 

I'm glad to say I cloned a BSD system and built it with qmail default
delivering outgoing mails only, dnscache caching resolutions for local
requests only, with daemontools included running svscan upon boot, and
ucspi-tcp ready to work. Manuals included. I also implemented my
favorite installation procedure:

   install <cd> <disk> 

Zero questions asked. :-)

As far as I'm aware, it's the only UNIX system running the best
mailer. Who would've thought this'd be true still in 2009.

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