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There was Cygnus Solutions, which I believe maintained GNU software (debugger, binutils) and contributed large parts of gcc. Cygnus was bought by Red Hat for $6

by declan 11y ago

There was Cygnus Solutions, which I believe maintained GNU software (debugger, binutils) and contributed large parts of gcc. Cygnus was bought by Red Hat for $674M in 1999. HN folks may recognize EFF board member John Gilmore as the founder.

fulafel 11y ago
Cygnus were the go-to company for GCC/GNU related work for hire, like doing compiler toolchain and support for your new embedded platform/new cpu. Even the name was a recursive acronym, like GNU: "Cygnus, Your GNu Support"
DonHopkins 11y ago
And also Michael Tiemann (now at RedHat), and David Henkel-Wallace (now at Technical Illusions, making CastAR). Their slogan was "We make free software affordable". (In answer to the anti-slogans: "Free software: more expensive than money" and "Linux is only free if your time is worthless".) I asked David if they named the company "Cygnus" after grepping /usr/dict/words for "gnu". He answered no, because if they'd thought of doing that, they would have named it "Wingnut".
- juliangregorian 11y ago
  Funny, but "wingnut" doesn't actually appear in /usr/dict/words
  - DonHopkins 11y ago
    The funniest thing is that David shot that back without missing a beat, with a perfectly straight face, and a somber tone that suggested he deeply regretted the missed opportunity. Did you know that the word "gnullable" wasn't in /usr/dict/words either?
    - juliangregorian 11y ago
      Yup, because I took 0.2 seconds to actually grep /usr/dict/words for "gnu" just recently.
      - DonHopkins 11y ago
        I think Gumby was either making a self-effacing joke, or a gratuitous dig at RMS -- I'm not sure which. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingnut_%28politics%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingnut_%28politics%29 "Wingnut" (sometimes "wing-nut") is an American political term used as a slur referring to a person who holds extreme, and often irrational, political views usually with a religious overtone. According to Merriam-Webster, it is "a mentally deranged person" or "one who advocates extreme measures or changes : radical."
atgreen 11y ago
I was at Cygnus (and still at RH). The total deal value was actually much higher because it was a stock deal and the Red Hat stock price kept climbing before everything was wrapped up.

by declan 11y ago

fulafel 11y ago

Cygnus were the go-to company for GCC/GNU related work for hire, like doing compiler toolchain and support for your new embedded platform/new cpu. Even the name was a recursive acronym, like GNU: "Cygnus, Your GNu Support"

DonHopkins 11y ago

And also Michael Tiemann (now at RedHat), and David Henkel-Wallace (now at Technical Illusions, making CastAR). Their slogan was "We make free software affordable". (In answer to the anti-slogans: "Free software: more expensive than money" and "Linux is only free if your time is worthless".) I asked David if they named the company "Cygnus" after grepping /usr/dict/words for "gnu". He answered no, because if they'd thought of doing that, they would have named it "Wingnut".

juliangregorian 11y ago
Funny, but "wingnut" doesn't actually appear in /usr/dict/words
- DonHopkins 11y ago
  The funniest thing is that David shot that back without missing a beat, with a perfectly straight face, and a somber tone that suggested he deeply regretted the missed opportunity. Did you know that the word "gnullable" wasn't in /usr/dict/words either?
  - juliangregorian 11y ago
    Yup, because I took 0.2 seconds to actually grep /usr/dict/words for "gnu" just recently.
    - DonHopkins 11y ago
      I think Gumby was either making a self-effacing joke, or a gratuitous dig at RMS -- I'm not sure which. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingnut_%28politics%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingnut_%28politics%29 "Wingnut" (sometimes "wing-nut") is an American political term used as a slur referring to a person who holds extreme, and often irrational, political views usually with a religious overtone. According to Merriam-Webster, it is "a mentally deranged person" or "one who advocates extreme measures or changes : radical."

atgreen 11y ago

I was at Cygnus (and still at RH). The total deal value was actually much higher because it was a stock deal and the Red Hat stock price kept climbing before everything was wrapped up.