On Tue, May 17 2022, Yasuaki Kudo <[email protected]> wrote: > So far, here is my own explanation of the apparent contradiction, > based on the comments from people who kindly participated in our > discussion: > > - GNU Emacs runs on Windows, a proprietary system. That's great > because it can be used as an opportunity to invite people to the world > of Free Software. > > - Guix runs on Linux, the unabridged with all the proprietary bits and > pieces for the video card, wifi and all. The same comment as above... > does not apply? Because if it runs on unmodified Linux and people > choose to do so, it hurts the project of promoting Free Software!
I think one important distinction between the first case and the second one is that Windows is unambiguously nonfree; there's no room for the user to misunderstand that they're on a free operating system. They can get their first taste of freedom on a nonfree operating system, and then choose to move to a free one. Plenty of users wrongfully assume that they're running a (fully) free system when they're using a distro like Ubuntu, when they're in fact not. Guix and the other FSDG distros having that policy helps raise awareness about that, and raise awareness about the problem of nonfree firmware generally. This article[1] has a little more context on how a specific event or community could present the issue of nonfree firmware to the user, allowing them to make an informed decision. But we ourselves shouldn't do that, as free software activists, as people (rightly) see us as "holding the line" when it comes to the free software philosophy. -g [1]: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/install-fest-devil.html -- Greg Farough // Campaigns Manager Free Software Foundation Join the FSF and help us defend software freedom: https://my.fsf.org
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