2012/5/22 Richard Stallman <r...@gnu.org>: > How does each candidate propose to make use of GNOME and its > communication to build support in the user community for free software > and the freedom it provides? > > The free software movement practices pragmatic idealism. Our ideal is > freedom for those who use software. We say that all programs should > be free, and our practical goal is to bring that about. > > The open source camp is pragmatic too, but mostly not idealistic. The > promoters of open source generally don't aim to make all programs open > source. They recommend a certain development methodology, presenting > it as a practical issue and not as an ethical requisite. > > You could imagine someone saying "ethically, all code should be open > source", but that's not the views of the open source camp. > > The idea of the GNU system follows from the free software movement's > ideals. If you want to escape from nonfree software, pragmatically > you need a free system to escape to. It has to be 100% free software > in order to do the job; 99% free software doesn't get you all the way > out. > > That's why we launched GNOME. In 1998, KDE was free software, but in > order to use it, one had to use nonfree Qt as well. Thus, KDE was > leading to a system that couldn't be 100% free software. We had to do > something about that, and what we did is GNOME. > > (Nowadays Qt is free software, so KDE doesn't have this problem any > more. Part of why Qt is free software is that GNOME put pressure on > the developers to make it free.) > > GNOME's usefulness as a software package is independent of how we talk > about it. However, the use of GNOME provides an opportunity to > educate the users about this issue, in philosophical and political > terms -- to teach them the idealism of the free software movement.
I don't think we have a duty or even a right to "educate" users in this fashion. Regardless in my personal experience having given presentations on the subject, trying to force a political ideology along with the topic generally leads to glazed over eyes and dismissal at best. I am happy to talk about such matters if requested but I am certainly not in favor of using GNOME as a platform to force such views on people. I am here to present a great modern desktop (and eventually OS) not an ideology. There happens to be a number of appealing effects of being Open Source and some limitations created by the state of affairs (DRMed content, software patents, redistribution restrictions, e.g.) that I will happily highlight when relevant but I reject that I have a right to educate people beyond that extend. > Thus, my question: how does each candidate propose to make use of > GNOME and its communication to build support in the user community for > free software and the freedom it provides? In short, I have no plans to use GNOME as a platform to spread support for Free Software. David Nielsen > > -- > Dr Richard Stallman > President, Free Software Foundation > 51 Franklin St > Boston MA 02110 > USA > www.fsf.org www.gnu.org > Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software. > Use Ekiga or an ordinary phone call > _______________________________________________ > foundation-list mailing list > foundation-list@gnome.org > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list _______________________________________________ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
