7 Aug
2009
7 Aug
'09
11:21 p.m.
On Fri, Aug 07, 2009 at 08:46:04PM +0300, Chuckk Hubbard wrote:
If you have an OSX system without the installation
discs, and you want
to install a free C/C++ compiler, the *only* way I have found is with
a download of several hundred MB from the official OSX website with
*lots* of extra stuff, examples, docs, developer's tools, for many
different languages. Surely won't matter for the majority of people
who would even consider Mac, but *why*? Why on earth would anyone make
that decision?? Especially considering that it's actually GPL software
created by someone else!
The installation discs for Mac OS X already contain software licensed
under the GNU GPL (e.g. bash), so the additional obligations under the
GPL would not have been the reason to exclude a compiler.
It seems much more likely that it was the size. Several hundred
megabytes that aren't required by most users should always be omitted
from the installation discs, so that more room is made for what most
users require.
The same is done with Ubuntu and Debian installation images. Most of
the tools needed to build Ubuntu are not included in the installation
image, and require downloading "apt-get build-dep $packagename".
--
James Cameron
http://quozl.linux.org.au/