code.delx.au - gnu-emacs/blob - etc/DISTRIB

   1                                                 -*- text -*-
   2 For an order form for all Emacs and FSF distributions deliverable from
   3 the USA, see the file `ORDERS' in this directory (etc/ in the GNU
   4 Emacs distribution or http://www.gnu.org/order/order.html).  For a
   5 European order form, see `ORDERS.EUROPE'.  For a Japan order form,
   6 see `ORDERS.JAPAN'.
   7 \f
   8            GNU Emacs availability information, October 2000
   9 Copyright (C) 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1998, 2000
  10            Free Software Foundation, Inc.
  11
  12         Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute
  13         verbatim copies of this document provided that the
  14         copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved.
  15
  16 GNU Emacs is legally owned by the Free Software Foundation, but we
  17 regard the foundation more as its custodian on behalf of the public.
  18
  19 In the GNU project, when we speak of "free software", this refers to
  20 liberty, not price.  Specifically, it refers to the users' freedom to
  21 study, copy, change and improve the software.  Sometimes users pay
  22 money for copies of GNU software, and sometimes they get copies at no
  23 charge.  But regardless of how they got the software, or whether it
  24 was modified by anyone else along the way, they have the freedom to
  25 copy and change it--those freedoms are what "free software" means.
  26
  27 The precise conditions for copying and modification are stated in the
  28 document "GNU General Public License," a copy of which is required to
  29 be distributed with every copy of GNU Emacs.  It is usually in a file
  30 named `COPYING' in the same directory as this file.  These conditions
  31 are designed to make sure that everyone who has a copy of GNU Emacs
  32 (including modified versions) has the freedom to redistribute and
  33 change it.
  34
  35 If you do not know anyone to get a copy of GNU Emacs from, you can
  36 order a cd-rom from the Free Software Foundation.  We distribute
  37 several Emacs versions.  We also distribute nicely typeset copies of
  38 the Emacs user manual, Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, the Emacs
  39 reference card, etc.  See file `ORDERS', or visit
  40 http://www.gnu.org/order/order.html.
  41
  42 If you have Internet access, you can copy the latest Emacs
  43 distribution from hosts, such as ftp.gnu.org.  There are several ways
  44 to do this; see http://www.gnu.org/software/software.html for more
  45 information.
  46
  47 Emacs has been run on GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and on many
  48 Unix systems, on a variety of types of cpu.  It also works on VMS and
  49 on Apollo computers, though with some deficiencies that reflect
  50 problems in these operating systems.  See the file `MACHINES' in this
  51 directory (see above) for a full list of machines that GNU Emacs has
  52 been tested on, with machine-specific installation notes and warnings.
  53 There is also an MS-DOS that works on newer MS-DOS machines, and
  54 an MS-Windows and a Mac version.
  55
  56 Note that there is significant variation between Unix systems
  57 supposedly running the same version of Unix; it is possible that what
  58 works in GNU Emacs for me does not work on your system due to such an
  59 incompatibility.  Since I must avoid reading Unix source code, I
  60 cannot even guess what such problems may exist.
  61
  62 GNU Emacs is distributed with no warranty (see the General Public
  63 License for full details, in the file `COPYING' in this directory (see
  64 above)), and neither I nor the Free Software Foundation promises any
  65 kind of support or assistance to users.  The foundation keeps a list
  66 of people who are willing to offer support and assistance for hire.
  67 See http://www.gnu.org/help/gethelp.html.
  68
  69 However, we plan to continue to improve GNU Emacs and keep it
  70 reliable, so please send me any complaints and suggestions you have.
  71 I will probably fix anything that I consider a malfunction.  I may
  72 make improvements that are suggested, but I may choose not to.
  73
  74 If you are on the Internet, report bugs to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.  You
  75 can use the Emacs command M-x report-bug RET to mail a bug report.
  76 Please read the Bugs section of the Emacs manual before reporting
  77 bugs.
  78
  79 General questions about the GNU Project can be asked of gnu@gnu.org.
  80
  81 If you are a computer manufacturer, I encourage you to ship a copy of
  82 GNU Emacs with every computer you deliver.  The same copying
  83 permission terms apply to computer manufacturers as to everyone else.
  84 You should consider making a donation to help support the GNU project;
  85 if you estimate what it would cost to distribute some commercial
  86 product and divide it by five, that is a good amount.
  87
  88 If you like GNU Emacs, please express your satisfaction with a
  89 donation: send me or the Foundation what you feel Emacs has been worth
  90 to you.  If you are glad that I developed GNU Emacs and distribute it
  91 as freeware, rather than following the obstructive and antisocial
  92 practices typical of software developers, reward me.  If you would
  93 like the Foundation to develop more free software, contribute.
  94
  95 Your donations will help to support the development of additional GNU
  96 software.  GNU/Linux systems (variants of GNU, based on the kernel
  97 Linux) have millions of users, but there is still much to be done.
  98 For more information on GNU, see the file `GNU' in this directory (see
  99 above).
 100
 101                         Richard M Stallman
 102                         Chief GNUisance,
 103                         President of the Free Software Foundation