Re: Removal of support for GCC hosted on UWIN (fwd)

[Bob Friesenhahn <bfriesen at simple dot dallas dot tx dot us>]

I should have copied the list with this response.  GPL places
limitations on the distribution of a program but does not limit the
user's right to create the program, or to use the program.

I don't know anything about U/WIN, but this feels like a knee-jerk
reaction to something.

Bob
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2001 08:16:39 -0600 (CST)
From: Bob Friesenhahn <bfriesen@simple.dallas.tx.us>
To: Mark Mitchell <mark@codesourcery.com>
Cc: rms@gnu.org
Subject: Re: Removal of support for GCC hosted on UWIN

Perhaps you should read GPL again.  It is not a violation of the GPL
to link a GPL'd program or library with *anything*.  GPL limits what
you can do with the result (you can't distribute it except for under
the provisions of GPL).  There is absolutely nothing to preclude gcc
from linking with a proprietary library, provided that it is done by
the final end user, on the end user's machine, and never distributed
after that.

I don't give a hoot about U/WIN, but feel that your reasoning is
incorrect.

Bob

On Tue, 9 Jan 2001, Mark Mitchell wrote:

> 
> We've learned that the usage of GCC on U/WIN involves a violation of
> the GNU GPL, linking GCC with a non-free third-party support library;
> therefore, we have removed the support for such usage.
> 
> Note that GCC is merely a special case: it is a violation of the GPL
> to link *any* GPL'd program with the U/WIN support library.
> 
> --
> Mark Mitchell                   mark@codesourcery.com
> CodeSourcery, LLC               http://www.codesourcery.com
> 

======================================
Bob Friesenhahn
bfriesen@simple.dallas.tx.us
http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen