Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Re: GNU/Linux | Date | Tue, 06 Apr 1999 00:46:28 -0400 | From | "Marty Leisner" <> |
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> >On Sat, 3 Apr 1999, Larry McVoy wrote: > >The most minimal complete Linux system consists of the kernel, some of the > >utilities in util-linux, a means of remote login and file transfer, a file > >editor, and the means to develop, test, compile and install all of the > >preceding. > > > >We can quibble over the real proprietorship of the copyright, and the > >separate issue of licence under the copyright, for all categories but the > >last. But when we come to real credit for the Linux achievement we should > >admit that Linux would not exist without the last category. Let me make > >that plain: Linux would not exist without Richard Stallman. > > Nonsense. GCC may be the best free C compiler out there, but it's > certainly not the only one and it certainly wasn't the only one in > 1991. If GCC wasn't around, one of the other free compilers would > have been suitable for the job, unless you're actually stating that > writing a compiler is such a grim horrible job that only a saint > would sacrifice themself to do it. > > ____ > david parsons \bi/ This latter is, of course, nonsense, and offtopic > \/
I've been actively using free software for more than a dozen years (since gcc 1.18).
I know of no other full, free compiler which runs on a variety of popular processors (MIPS, Sparc, NSxxx, i386, M68xxx, some more). (which one were you thinking off?)
I don't think lcc was around in 1991...
Small-C was just a subset of C...
I really think if a quality, free, portable compiler wasn't written, this would have been all for naught...
And a C compiler needs: a debugger an assembler, linker, and object utilities
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