Re: GNU License for Hardware

[Richard Stallman]

The X Windows system is not a GNU program; the GNU Project
cannot claim any of the credit for developing X.

However, we decided back in the 1980s to include X in the GNU
operating system, and we began integrating the rest of the system with
it.  So the GNU operating system includes X, even though X is not GNU
software.

When I say that the GNU Project provided more of the GNU/Linux system
than any other source, I do not count X, because the GNU Project did
not provide X.  MIT did that.

When I say that the GNU/Linux system is the combination of the
GNU system and Linux, I do count X as part of the GNU system.
It was part of the GNU system before Linux was started.

Remember that the GNU system did not set out to write GNU programs.
We set out to develop a whole system.  GNU is first of all the name of
the system, and only secondarily the name of a project and a "brand"
of software and manuals and licenses.