From: mentalg@geocities.com
  To  : ggi-develop@eskimo.com
  Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 18:06:26 -0400 (EDT)

Re: Open list of issues before Degas goes out

On Tue, 15 Sep 1998, WHS wrote:

> > Tell BSD people that all their executable programs (except the kernel) are
> > linked against libgcc.a (/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux(or
> > whatever)/2.7.2(or whatever gcc version you are using)/libgcc.a). This
> > library is GPL, although it can be linked with non-GPL programs because of
> 
> It isn't GPL.

Yes, it's essentially GPL, although if we call it that, it does need to be
qualified with 'modified' or something.

> > an special exception:
> > 
> > /* As a special exception, if you link this library with other files,
> >    some of which are compiled with GCC, to produce an executable,
> >    this library does not by itself cause the resulting executable
> >    to be covered by the GNU General Public License.
> >    This exception does not however invalidate any other reasons why
> >    the executable file might be covered by the GNU General Public License.
> > */
> 
> I.e. it isn't GPL.

i.e. it's a modified GPL, and the modifications put it somewhere between
stock GPL and LGPL in terms of strictness.

> This is completely irrelevant to why LGPL libggi and
> in general LGPL/GPL runtime code is be a problem for BSD, so why would I
> need to tell other BSD users this?

Actually, that's pretty relevent.  That's more or less in effect what the
LGPL is -- except the linking is lifted beyond just GCC, and the LGPL has
some additional restrictions removed as well.

We'd better save the rest of this for the IRC meeting.

-=MenTaLguY=-