On 15/11/06, Shachar Shemesh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Oded Arbel wrote: > Unfortunately, it requires bootstrapping with an existing > JDK, and Sun's 1.6 or 1.7 (beta and alpha respectively) are recommended. > As neither of these are free software I don't think the new "Open"JDK > qualifies as free software either, regardless of the licensing. > According to the same logic, neither is GCC. After all, in order to compile the first version of GCC, a proprietary compiler was used.
Or another example which amuses me even after all those years - BIOS (or its equivalent on various platforms). (yes, I know there are free BIOS's, but they are not relevant for all the platforms on which FOSS OS's boot). (and yes I know it's not exactly the same as the GCC or OpenJDK thing since they should be expected to be able to eventually get free off the initial non-free dependency, it's actually a stronger example) --Amos
