GCC association with the FSF

[Jonathan Wakely]

On Sun, 11 Apr 2021, 15:26 Richard Sandiford via Gcc, <gcc@gcc.gnu.org>
wrote:

>
>
> I think it's misleading to talk about GCC “leaving” or “disassociating
> itself” from the FSF or from the GNU project.  No-one can force the FSF or
> the GNU project to drop GCC (and I don't think anyone's trying to make it
> do that).  I think what we're really talking about is whether there should
> be a fork.


There doesn't *have* to be a fork. If GCC walked away from GNU, the GNU
system could continue to use GCC with no actual input to it, just like it
uses the Linux kernel (except for a statistically insignificant number of
GNU/Hurd systems). I have no objection to the FSF using my GCC work (they
are free to do so, like all users are, thanks to the excellent GPL). But I
no longer want to be required to give them the copyright or ownership of
that work.

But for various reasons being passive consumers of a non-FSF GCC probably
wouldn't be popular, so a fork may be for the best.



>
> FWIW, again speaking personally, I would be in favour of joining a fork.[*]
>

Glad to hear it :-)

I will be forking, alone if necessary, but I've already been told by a few
people I won't be alone.