Shaun McCance wrote: > > I am not saying you don't have my support. What I'm saying is that > I'm not the silver bullet that you think I am. Maintainers will > WONTFIX a "use GNU/Linux" bug just as fast with my name on it as > without.
I guess you are right, some maintainers will refuse to follow the project's policy, although I find it unacceptable that a person who declares himself a "GNOME developer/maintainer" would refuse to follow an established policy. If there is no mechanism to deal with such cases, this is bad for the project. Such people will need to be persuaded additionaly. It may or may not work, but having this as a GDP-blessed "policy" will help a lot. But you seem to be taking a neutral position. Why are you afraid to steer the GNOME "boat" in the right direction? You fear the wrath of fellow "opensource-minded" developers or there is something else that I cannot see? You could ask the GNOME Foundation Board or we can move the discussion to the foundation-list, if that is acceptable. > I don't think that's a fair characterization. There are plenty of > people who agree with the ideals of GNU, who actively hack on *free > software*, but who don't think that saying "GNU/Linux" is a > sufficiently important step towards accomplishing those ideals. If there is such a group, I'm having a hard time figuring out how they don't consider this a problem. "Software is like sex, it's better when it's free" is not part of the GNU Philosophy and definitely not a message that we'd like to pass to the users. > Differing opinions on the best means to an end does not equate to a > difference in ideals. Just because a person thinks that "GNU/Linux" > is a mouthful (and it is a mouthful) does not mean that she doesn't > love free software. Accusing her of such will only alienate her. Decisions based on aesthetic issues are feasible if, and only if, the solution doesn't change the sense. In our case it is a drastic change in the worst possible way. If people want a short name, they can use "GNU" as in 99% of the cases what you'd say would be valid for all variants of GNU. -- In the GNU Project, discrimination against proprietary software is not just a policy -- it's the principle and the purpose. Proprietary software is fundamentally unjust and wrong, so when we have the opportunity to place it at a disadvantage, that is a good thing. --RMS _______________________________________________ gnome-doc-list mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-doc-list
