Re: Do we need "Mission-Critical" software? Was: What to Do?

[Ted Dennison <dennison@telepath.com>]

In article <92qp32$eul$1@nnrp1.deja.com>,
  Robert Dewar <robert_dewar@my-deja.com> wrote:
> In article <92qi97$9pc$1@nnrp1.deja.com>,
>   Ted Dennison <dennison@telepath.com> wrote:
> > You would be referring to AdaOS ( http://www.adaos.org ). If
> > they ever get started, I don't see why it would be any less
> > viable than Hurd. The FSF is just a tax-deductable umbrella
> > group.
>
> An odd and wrong claim! The FSF definitely develops software,
> and has hired people over the years as software engineers (and
> of course RMS himself is a software developer -- he would be
> happy to subsitute the term hacker). Most (nearly all) the work
> on HURD has been done by the FSF, which is far more than just
> an umbrella group.

Well, I guess that shouldn't be too horribly shocking for the HURD, as
it is the reason for the formation of the GNU project in the first
place. But how many other projects share that status?

> Ted, where *do* you get your (mis)information from? :-)

By looking around applying my stupefying intellect, of course! :-)

I can tell you, with a little lead notice, who pays for the development
work for the a lot principlals involved in the Linux kernel, its various
window managers, plus a lot of scripting languages, compilers, etc. But
the FSF would not be (to my knowledge) in any of the above. Further,
I've never heard of the FSF jumping on a project and funding further
development. But perhaps its just the circles I travel in that's
constraining my view of things...

You'd be in a better situation than anyone here to comment on this, due
to your first-hand experience as a maintainer of an official GNU project
(Gnat). Does the FSF acually kick in funds for the development and/or
maintanence of Gnat?

I suppose they have to be doing *something* with all that money they get
from selling manuals and T-Shirts...

--
T.E.D.

http://www.telepath.com/~dennison/Ted/TED.html


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