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Williams, Sam

"Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software"

A year later, in February of 1988, the GNU
Project announced that it had shifted its attentions to
Mach, a lightweight "micro-kernel" developed at
Carnegie Mellon. All told, however, official GNU
Project kernel development wouldn't commence until 1990.See "HURD History."
http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/history.html
The delays in kernel development were just one of many
concerns weighing on Stallman during this period. In
1989, Lotus Development Corporation filed suit against
rival software company, Paperback Software
International, for copying menu commands in Lotus'
popular 1-2-3 Spreadsheet program. Lotus' suit, coupled
with the Apple -Microsoft "look and feel" battle,
provided a troublesome backdrop for the GNU Project.
Although both suits fell outside the scope of the GNU
Project, both revolved around operating systems and
software applications developed for the personal
computer, not Unix-compatible hardware systems-they
threatened to impose a chilling effect on the entire
culture of software development.


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