You have made your point clearer to me, so thank you for that.
In the case of GIMP and EMACS they are not using linux, They are using a windows port of a free software program--which is good. Here they are not using a Windows port of a free program, they are using a Windows port of an entire distro. They are not porting any of the utilities, they are porting the entire ubuntu environment, within which these programs can run. They are running it with the windows kernel. It is GNU/Windows.
Why not port all of the relevant free programs for windows developers? If the answer is that it is hard, just let them use GNU/Linux which is easy. I understand the problem with your students. 99% of the time they use windows, which is on their computers. Teach an entire course on using GNU/Linux for program development. Or a course promoting the merits of free software and how to use it. The fact that most of the world uses windows should not justify porting our entire 'operating system' to windows.
By making it easy to use within Windows we are promoting continued use of Windows. We don't just want people to use free software, we want people to NOT use nonfree software. This helps them use free software and helps them continue to use nonfree software. This is not a free software solution, it is an open source solution. Open source is comfortable having free and nonfree software existing side-by-side while the free software movement is not. It is hard to sell a strict position, but that does not mean we should be less strict.
What is your reason why they cannot use GNU/Linux directly??
