[m_nyongesa]

I upvoted you. I have no idea why your comment received downvotes.

I responded in a similar way to a conversation about Julia less than a week ago.

For people who have trouble understanding this reasoning, a message from the GCC mailing list (https://gcc.gnu.org/legacy-ml/gcc/2014-01/msg00247.html) provides some of the explanation, which I reproduce here:

In the free software movement, we campaign for the freedom of the users of computing. The values of free software are fundamentally different from the values of open source, which make "better code" the ultimate goal. If GCC were to change from a free compiler into a platform for nonfree compilers, it would no longer serve the goal of freedom very well. Therefore, we had to take care to prevent that.

(See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.h... for more explanation of the difference between free software and open source. See also https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-meme-hustler for Evgeny Morozov's article on the same point.)

The Clang and LLVM developers reach different conclusions from ours because they do not share our values and goals. They object to the measures we have taken to defend freedom because they see the inconvenience of them and do not recognize (or don't care about) the need for them. I would guess they describe their work as "open source" and do not talk about freedom. They have been supported by Apple, the company which hates our freedom so much that its app store for the ithings _requires_ all apps to be nonfree. (*)

The nonfree compilers that are now based on LLVM prove that I was right -- that the danger was real. If I had "opened" up GCC code for use in nonfree combinations, that would not have prevented a defeat; rather, it would have caused that defeat to occur very soon.

For GCC to be replaced by another technically superior compiler that defended freedom equally well would cause me some personal regret, but I would rejoice for the community's advance. The existence of LLVM is a terrible setback for our community precisely because it is not copylefted and can be used as the basis for nonfree compilers -- so that all contribution to LLVM directly helps proprietary software as much as it helps us.

The cause of the setback is the existence of a non-copylefted compiler that therefore becomes the base for nonfree compilers. The identity of that compiler -- whether it be LLVM, GCC, or something else -- is a secondary detail. To make GCC available for such use would be throwing in the towel. If that enables GCC to "win", the victory would be hollow, because it would not be a victory for what really matters: users' freedom.

If you think we ought to "compromise" on this point, please see http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/compromise.html.

The only code that helps us and not our adversaries is copylefted code. Free software released under a pushover license is available for us to use, but available to our adversaries just as well. If you want your work to give freedom an advantage, use the leverage available to you -- copyleft your code. I invite those working on major add-ons to LLVM to release them under GNU GPL version-3-or-later.

* If a binary is made from published source code, but you can't install your binary of a modified version of that source code, the binary is proprietary even if the source code is free. (See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html.) A binary in Apple's app store may be made from published free source code, but under Apple's rules and Apple's DRM, the binary can't be free.

[mustache_kimono]

> I have no idea why your comment received downvotes.

I have to agree re: the parent. It's a perfectly fine opinion to hold, though it's one I don't share. I asked and he/she told me.

However, republishing an email by Richard Stallman, just like Richard Stallman, might seem a little excessive.

Why? I think it's because although just as it's fine to be an atheist, it always seems weird when someone brings it up at dinner parties. We were discussing the whys and wherefores of a new Rust compiler. I'm not sure any lengthy expressions of our licensing religion or lack thereof is a positive contribution.

[nbjoerg]

The irony of Richard's decision and justification is how misguided it was (and is) on multiple fronts.

First, GCC as a whole has never been technically superior to the commercial competition. The reason why GCC was popular outside the GNU crowd and received as much funded development is that it was the best compiler across a range of popular platforms and had the best price, too.

Second, one of the main drivers behind the creation of clang has been the hostility to making the C/C++ frontend of GCC usable as a standalone tool. Richard explicitly wanted to force everyone to either deal with the GPL and his interpretation of what is derived work, or shell off the bucks for the Edision Design Group. This was a calculated choice as no one would want to invest the time to write another C/C++ frontend, right? He intentionally ignored all other use cases for C/C++ parser as a library (Language server, anyone? Refactoring tools?) and thereby actually hurt the user base on the GNU platform just as well. It can not be understated how disruptive clang was as a set of libraries outside the LLVM/clang compiler.

Third, GCC had as middle and backend compiler always was moderately accessible, but by structure somewhat harder to access for researchers or people wanting on special purpose tools like optimized code generation for computational kernels on matrixes.

GCC was forced to acknowledge the competition by finally getting a plugin interface in the GCC 4.5 days, but at that point, the cat was out of the bag.