n lines of gcc is greater than n lines of utils? (Score 1)

jon, i suggest you re-read your MIT history. yep, rms formalised and evangelised the notion of free software, but hand-me-down open source projects were the lifeblood of MIT (and probably every other University with a decent computer lab in the 60s and 70s). open source is just the continuation of the culture surrounding academic minicomputers, particularly the DEC and PDP.

and if writing a C compiler is hard then why do they make CS graduates do it?