Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!unreplyable!garbage
From: r...@MOLE.AI.MIT.EDU (Richard Stallman)
Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help,comp.emacs
Subject: Motif and GNU
Message-ID: <9103062149.AA17725@mole.ai.mit.edu>
Date: 6 Mar 91 21:49:29 GMT
Sender: dae...@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
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Organization: Gatewayed from the GNU Project mailing list help-gnu-em...@prep.ai.mit.edu
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The issue here is not what people are allowed to do.  In particular,
the GPL doesn't limit what programs people could run on a GNU kernel,
and the kernel won't know whether an executable has Motif linked in.
The issue is how people can write software that is widely useful,
while helping to support free software.

Motif won't be part of the GNU system, which means that it won't be
available to most GNU users.  (And, if it does not happen to run
without change on a GNU system, it may never be made to run.)  We will
probably have shared libraries eventually, and most GNU users won't
have a library for Motif.  The other, free toolkits will be available
on all GNU systems.  For this reason, users will be better off if you
use something other than Motif.

Also, by using a free toolkit, you will be helping it to succeed.  And
it is better if free toolkits succeed than if proprietary ones
succeed.

Meanwhile, please don't use GNU mailing lists/newsgroups to post
information on how to buy proprietary software, Motif included.