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Re: GCC's hardware requirements - Where is the freedom? [was: Re:gcc 3.5 integration branch proposal]
On Tue, 2004-01-20 at 01:01, Matthias Benkmann wrote:
> Free software that requires a machine that most people in 3rd world
> countries cannot afford IS NOT FREE (as in "freedom"), even if it is
> distributed under the GPL. GCC is at the very heart of the GNU system and
> the free software world. There will be more and more free software
> projects that require new GCC versions. This means that there will be more
> and more projects that are off-limits for a large group of people, if
> GCC's hardware requirements continue to rise.
>
> I get the impression that several GCC developers work on GCC for the wrong
> reasons (at least from the GNU perspective). This discussion about GCC
> requirements is symptomatic of the problem addressed in the very beginning
> of
>
> http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html
>
> "Open source is a development methodology; free software is a social
> movement."
>
> As GCC still sails under the FSF's flag I think that the social aspect
> must not be ignored.
Last year I proposed on this list to donate money to buy machines for
the GCC project, one of the side effect would have been to give access
to reasonable machines to GCC developpers who can't have them at home.
The GCC SC and the FSF people decided that it was better
to use the money for other tasks, even if the details of the discussions
were not made public I assume that it invalidates your
interpretation of the FSF stance here.
Laurent