BCI NET 2/BCI NET 2.iso/archives/applications/wp/a2.0bemacs-bin.lha/Emacs-19.25/etc/DISTRIB

Text File | 1993-04-21 | 5.4 KB | 110 lines

                            -*- text -*-
For an order form for all Emacs and FSF distributions deliverable from
the USA, see the file `ORDERS' in this directory (etc/ in the GNU
Emacs distribution or /pub/gnu/GNUinfo on prep.ai.mit.edu).  For a
European order form, see `ORDERS.EUROPE'.

       GNU Emacs availability information, January 1993
Copyright (C) 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

    Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute
    verbatim copies of this document provided that the
    copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved.

GNU Emacs is legally owned by the Free Software Foundation, but we
regard the foundation more as its custodian on behalf of the public.

In the GNU project, when we speak of "free software", this refers to
liberty, not price.  Specifically, it refers to the users' freedom to
study, copy, change and improve the software.  Sometimes users pay
money for copies of GNU software, and sometimes they get copies at no
charge.  But regardless of how they got the software, or whether it
was modified by anyone else along the way, they have the freedom to
copy and change it--those freedoms are what "free software" means.

The precise conditions for copying and modification are stated in the
document "GNU General Public License," a copy of which is required to
be distributed with every copy of GNU Emacs.  It is usually in a file
named `COPYING' in the same directory as this file.  These conditions
are designed to make sure that everyone who has a copy of GNU Emacs
(including modified versions) has the freedom to redistribute and
change it.

If you do not know anyone to get a copy of GNU Emacs from, you can
order a tape, cd-rom, or floppy diskette from the Free Software
Foundation.  We distribute Emacs version 18 and 19 in different
formats for many machines.  We also distribute nicely typeset copies
of the Emacs user manual, Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, the Emacs
reference card, etc.  See file `ORDERS'.

If you have Internet access, you can copy the latest Emacs
distribution from hosts, such as prep.ai.mit.edu.  There are several
ways to do this; see the file `FTP' for more information.  Even
better, get the latest version of the file from `/pub/gnu/GNUinfo/FTP'
on prep.ai.mit.edu for the most current arrangements.  It may also be
possible to copy Emacs via uucp; the file `FTP' contains information
on that too.

Emacs has been run on both Berkeley Unix and System V Unix, on a
variety of types of cpu.  It also works on VMS and on Apollo
computers, though with some deficiencies that reflect problems in
these operating systems.  See the file `MACHINES' in this directory
(see above) for a full list of machines that GNU Emacs has been tested
on, with machine-specific installation notes and warnings.  There is
also Demacs that works on newer MS-DOS machines (see file `ORDERS').

Note that there is significant variation between Unix systems
supposedly running the same version of Unix; it is possible that what
works in GNU Emacs for me does not work on your system due to such an
incompatibility.  Since I must avoid reading Unix source code, I
cannot even guess what such problems may exist.

GNU Emacs is distributed with no warranty (see the General Public
License for full details, in the file `COPYING' in this directory (see
above)), and neither I nor the Free Software Foundation promises any
kind of support or assistance to users.  The foundation keeps a list
of people who are willing to offer support and assistance for hire.
See the file `SERVICE'.  You can get the latest version from
prep.ai.mit.edu in file `/pub/gnu/GNUinfo/SERVICE'.

However, we plan to continue to improve GNU Emacs and keep it
reliable, so please send me any complaints and suggestions you have.
I will probably fix anything that I consider a malfunction.  I may
make improvements that are suggested, but I may choose not to.
Improving Emacs is not my highest priority now.

If you are on the Internet, report bugs to
[e-mail]; on UUCP, use the address
...!uunet!prep.ai.mit.edu!bug-gnu-emacs.  Otherwise, phone or write the
foundation at:
    Free Software Foundation
    675 Massachusetts Avenue
    Cambridge, MA  02139
    [phone]
General questions about the GNU Project can be asked of
[e-mail].

If you are a computer manufacturer, I encourage you to ship a copy of
GNU Emacs with every computer you deliver.  The same copying
permission terms apply to computer manufacturers as to everyone else.
You should consider making a donation to help support the GNU project;
if you estimate what it would cost to distribute some commercial
product and divide it by five, that is a good amount.

If you like GNU Emacs, please express your satisfaction with a
donation: send me or the Foundation what you feel Emacs has been worth
to you.  If you are glad that I developed GNU Emacs and distribute it
as freeware, rather than following the obstructive and antisocial
practices typical of software developers, reward me.  If you would
like the Foundation to develop more free software, contribute.

Your donations will help to support the development of more useful
software to be distributed on the same basis as GNU Emacs.  Eventually
we will have a complete imitation of the Unix operating system, called
GNU (Gnu's Not Unix), which will run Unix user programs.  For more
information on GNU, see the file `GNU' in this directory (see above).

            Richard M Stallman
            Chief GNUisance,
            President of the Free Software Foundation