RMS says: "Use BSD, for goodness sake!"

[Narvi]

On Thu, 26 Jun 2003, Dag-Erling [iso-8859-1] Sm=F8rgrav wrote:

> Paul Robinson <paul at iconoplex.co.uk> writes:
> > bc - an undergrad could re-implement based on man page
>
> With a good arbitrary-precision math library, yes.  The one we have
> happens to be GPLed.
>

but do we need it?

> > bzip2 - could be reimplemented
>
> More like "doesn't really belong in the base system".  Yes, I know it
> compresses better than libz, but it is significantly slower and more
> memory-intensive.
>

bzip2 is not - and has not ever been - gpl licenced. In fact, i somebody
botheres to take a look at /usr/src/contrib/bzip2/LICENCE they will see
something that is inbetween 4-cluase BSD licence and apache licence.  I
really don't see what would be achieved from a pure 2-clause bsd licence
reimplementation, imho it would be pretty pointless

As for belonging in the base system - it has roughly the same relevance as
gzip or gcc or similar. Uninclusion of it would be very awkward.