Re: free vs. non-free debate

[Gary Lawrence Murphy <garym@canada.com>]

>>>>> "G" == Guylhem Aznar <guylhem@oeil.qc.ca> writes:

    G> The GNU project provided most of what's now used in GNU/Linux
    G> operating system.

GNU provided _everything_ now used in a GNU/Linux, but if you total
the GPL's in a typical non-Debian release, you will find the
percentage is a little less than stellar.  If you consider only
FSF-authored tools, the hit rate is worse.  I will admit it is more
than 50%, but 'most' is misleading.

Right now, just on my desktop, the only major GPL software running is
my dear old friend GNU Emacs, and many people don't even use that
anymore.  Of my most-used applications, only a few are GPL.  Frankly,
I don't understand this because I personally _prefer_ the GPL for my
work, but apparently many others who's work I respect do not share my
enthusiasm.

By far the biggest share on my disk, in terms of diskspace, are
non-GNU variants, all of them generically 'open source' except MySQL
and Netscape, but not many that are actually GNU-licenced.  Because I
run RedHat, I also have a large number of files which are GNU but which
I never actually use (eg the GNOME kit)

-- 
Gary Lawrence Murphy <garym@linux.ca>: office voice/fax: 01 519 4222723
TCI - Business Innovations through Open Source : http://www.teledyn.com
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