Re: changes made/thanks (re hardware designs)

[Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

	    Sorry, I was vague there. By the end program I mean the compiled
    binary, ie what runs on the machine. You can't (or at least I don't think
    the GPL tries to) restrict what the user does with the program. 

Yes it does.  When a program is released under the GPL, the GPL covers
the binary version of the program as well as the source version.

    Ie
    someone can use gcc to compile proprietary code,

That is a different issue entirely, a different situation.
The output from GCC is not a version of GCC.  It is a version
of whatever program was supplied as input.

						     run closed source
    programs ontop of Linux etc. 

A user program that runs on the GNU/Linux operating system talks to
the kernel, Linux, through the GNU C library.  ("Linux libc 5" was
really a modified version of GNU libc 1.)

The reason you can run a non-free program on the GNU/Linux system is
that the FSF releases GNU libc under the LGPL, which permits linking
it into non-free programs.

The term "closed source" presumably refers to the Open Source movement
which started in 1998 as an alternative to the Free Software movement.
The meaning of "open source" is not exactly the same as "free
software".  Also, use of the term "open source" boosts the Open Source
movement, whereas I would rather boost the Free Software movement.
That is why I responded in terms of free software.  (See
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html.)