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1 -*- text -*-
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2 For an order form for all Emacs and FSF distributions deliverable from
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3 the USA, see http://www.gnu.org/order/order.html.
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4
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5 GNU Emacs availability information, October 2000
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6
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7 Copyright (C) 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1998,
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8 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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9
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10 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute
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11 verbatim copies of this document provided that the
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12 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved.
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13
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14 GNU Emacs is legally owned by the Free Software Foundation, but we
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15 regard the foundation more as its custodian on behalf of the public.
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16
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17 In the GNU project, when we speak of "free software", this refers to
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18 liberty, not price. Specifically, it refers to the users' freedom to
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19 study, copy, change and improve the software. Sometimes users pay
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20 money for copies of GNU software, and sometimes they get copies at no
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21 charge. But regardless of how they got the software, or whether it
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22 was modified by anyone else along the way, they have the freedom to
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23 copy and change it--those freedoms are what "free software" means.
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24
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25 The precise conditions for copying and modification are stated in the
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26 document "GNU General Public License," a copy of which is required to
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27 be distributed with every copy of GNU Emacs. It is usually in a file
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28 named `COPYING' in the same directory as this file. These conditions
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29 are designed to make sure that everyone who has a copy of GNU Emacs
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30 (including modified versions) has the freedom to redistribute and
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31 change it.
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32
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33 If you do not know anyone to get a copy of GNU Emacs from, you can
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34 order a cd-rom from the Free Software Foundation. We distribute
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35 several Emacs versions. We also distribute nicely typeset copies of
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36 the Emacs user manual, Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, the Emacs
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37 reference card, etc. See http://www.gnu.org/order/order.html.
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38
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39 If you have Internet access, you can copy the latest Emacs
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40 distribution from hosts, such as ftp.gnu.org. There are several ways
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41 to do this; see http://www.gnu.org/software/software.html for more
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42 information.
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43
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44 Emacs has been run on GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and on many
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45 Unix systems, on a variety of types of cpu, as well as on MSDOS,
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46 Windows and MacOS. It also formerly worked on VMS and on Apollo
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47 computers, though with some deficiencies that reflect problems in
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48 these operating systems. See the file `MACHINES' in this directory
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49 (see above) for a full list of machines that GNU Emacs has been tested
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50 on, with machine-specific installation notes and warnings.
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51
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52 Note that there is significant variation between Unix systems
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53 supposedly running the same version of Unix; it is possible that what
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54 works in GNU Emacs for me does not work on your system due to such an
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55 incompatibility. Since I must avoid reading Unix source code, I
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56 cannot even guess what such problems may exist.
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57
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58 GNU Emacs is distributed with no warranty (see the General Public
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59 License for full details, in the file `COPYING' in this directory (see
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60 above)), and neither I nor the Free Software Foundation promises any
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61 kind of support or assistance to users. The foundation keeps a list
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62 of people who are willing to offer support and assistance for hire.
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63 See http://www.gnu.org/help/gethelp.html.
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64
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65 However, we plan to continue to improve GNU Emacs and keep it
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66 reliable, so please send me any complaints and suggestions you have.
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67 I will probably fix anything that I consider a malfunction. I may
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68 make improvements that are suggested, but I may choose not to.
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69
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70 If you are on the Internet, report bugs to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org. You
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71 can use the Emacs command M-x report-bug RET to mail a bug report.
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72 Please read the Bugs section of the Emacs manual before reporting
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73 bugs.
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74
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75 General questions about the GNU Project can be asked of gnu@gnu.org.
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76
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77 If you are a computer manufacturer, I encourage you to ship a copy of
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78 GNU Emacs with every computer you deliver. The same copying
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79 permission terms apply to computer manufacturers as to everyone else.
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80 You should consider making a donation to help support the GNU project;
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81 if you estimate what it would cost to distribute some commercial
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82 product and divide it by five, that is a good amount.
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83
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84 If you like GNU Emacs, please express your satisfaction with a
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85 donation: send me or the Foundation what you feel Emacs has been worth
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86 to you. If you are glad that I developed GNU Emacs and distribute it
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87 as free software, rather than following the obstructive and antisocial
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88 practices typical of software developers, reward me. If you would
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89 like the Foundation to develop more free software, contribute.
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90
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91 Your donations will help to support the development of additional GNU
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92 software. GNU/Linux systems (variants of GNU, based on the kernel
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93 Linux) have millions of users, but there is still much to be done.
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94 For more information on GNU, see the file `GNU' in this directory (see
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95 above).
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96
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97 Richard M Stallman
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98 Chief GNUisance,
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99 President of the Free Software Foundation
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