On Tue, 04 Dec 2007 11:44:24 -0800, Thomas Dineen wrote: > Peter: > > I think the idea here is the make the S/W easier to access and use, > thus opening up the user base to become hopefully larger, maybe > exponentially larger. Keep in mind I and one of the biggest supporters > or fans of GNU Freeware, and conversely one of the biggest haters of > Microsoft. To destroy MS you must make your tools easier to access and > use, to the point of being usable by the average user. So it's a little tricky to build from source and install a large, complex, sophisticated, cross-platform, open source compiler suite. How surprising. Now... when did *anyone* - average user or not - build and install a MS compiler suite from source (apart from an MS employee)? I suspect you will find that the "average user" of GCC is using a pre- built GCC configured for easy install in their environment by some kindly package maintainer - and in "environment" I include MS Windows (cf. MinGW, Cygwin, etc.). Not so different, then, from installing a MS compiler (except, obviously, cheaper, better, cross-platform and open source). [...] -- Lionel B
