What if I use Netbeans on Linux? Is that better than vim or emacs? Does it count if I use Xcode? Or are claiming that Windows is the best programming platform? Or are you drunk? Or are you not really a programmer? What about patching the kernel? Why would you need to patch *any* kernel if you so obviously think that a "modern Wndows IDE" is better than good old vim and emacs?

You are very confused sir. You also communicate as newbies often do: generalization, lots of unrelated subjects, etc, etc. After all, I have used lots of different IDEs and I keep coming back to my faithful vim because, guess what, it does what I need and more. For the things it doesn't do, well, that's why you need lots of the GNU tools out there, right? How do you awk on your beloved Windows IDEs? How do you grep? How do you head or tail or even cron your way on your Windows IDEs?

Again, why was it you had to patch your Linux kernel?

Again. A legal document. There's no such thing as a moral thing to do when you are talking about a LEGAL DOCUMENT.

Let me rephrase:

You can defend the spirit of OPEN SOURCE as a whole. What it should be. What the GPL, BSD, APACHE, CC and other licenses lack and what they contribute to the community. Their style and pace. The legal implications. Furthermore, you can argue all you want about the moral implications of those documents and the possibility of a lawsuit the original author may present before a Court for infringement of the GPLv2 license that he used to publish *his* Xpilot software.

The reality is that these guys have not breached the GPL in any way. That they are profiting from a port which meets all the requirements the GPL imposes. That the original work was currently not in use by the original author. That the original author legally waived *those* rights over the software when he first published it with a GPL license.

I sense that your arbitrary position is that it doesn't matter whether it's free as in beer or not. What matters is that GPL'd software should not be ported to the iPhone because you can not install or run modified versions of the software on it.... now you've got a whole new vector of problems that the poor guys hadn't thought of before... and let me tell you, these kinds of discussions led the GPL community to be torn apart by a flawed rewrite such as the GPLv3. The general rule is that in case of confusion, one should stick to the old GPLv2. Now we're f-ur c-ked. Meanwhile, Apple and Microsoft keep coming back with their glorified license schemes and the community has to adhere by them because we can't simply get along between us.

Talk about spirit...

There is no "spirit of GPL". There's the GPL. A legal document, more precisely, a license, that allows the distribution of software and its source code given specific guidelines. On the other hand, there is a "spirit of cultural adaptation" (for lack of a cleverer parody) that guarantees that culture will adapt *anything* that's not forgotten to the current world state. And adapting the GPL to fit Apple's demands is the current course of events.

You, my friend, can either adapt or become a dinosaur. A dinosaur with morals. But a dinosaur nonetheless.