I'm not sure that I qualify as a vote, but hey opinions are cheap. I vote for 2) and possibly 3)
Although I have deep respect for RMS and the FSF, I don't personally agree with his conviction to reject all non-Gnu software. I also don't understand why he ignores the significant contribution that Gnu has made to the BSD's and even UNIX, while at the same time lambasting the GPL'd Linux distro's over the lack of a GNU/ prefix. I suppose he would have no reservations about the name Truman State GNU/Linux Users Group (TSGLUG). But does that name reflect the values of the group? Perhaps a new name should be considered when there's more activity in the group (i.e. during the school session.) We might even see some creative names tossed about. If the name were to change, I think it would move even further from GNU/Linux to something more generic to include non-GPL licensed software and systems. Just my 2 cents. On Friday 18 July 2003 16:41, you wrote: > A few of you already know, but most of you probably don't: We > have tentatively got Richard M. Stallman (the father of free > software) slated to give an address at the end of our fall > Linux Workshop Series. > > There has been one glitch so far. Anyone who knows much about > RMS will know that he is very pure about his > convictions/philosophy to the extant that people sometimes find > this somewhat abrasive. One of those convictions is that a > distro like Debian or RedHat is more than an operating system. > It is an OS and tools and compilers and applications, etc. Most > of those tools are inherited directly or indirectly from the GNU > project (at least by way of the compilers), and for this reason > he is faithful in referring to the whole as GNU/Linux. > > This might seem innocuous, but here's the point. He takes pains > not to be associated and sponsored by companies/organizations > that do not credit the GNU project for its contribution, i.e. > to organizations that do not correctly refer to GNU/Linux. He > does not wish to have his speech be sponsored by, and therefore > associated with, an organization named the "Truman State Linux > Users Group." > > I am open to suggestions, but I see three resolutions to this > little predicament: > > 1. RMS doesn't come to speak. > 2. RMS comes to speak, and he is sponsored by TWICS and ACM only > (while the TSLUG sponsors the workshops). > 3. TSLUG changes its name to better reflect the actual nature of > our group, which includes: > a) openness to non-Truman members > b) interest in other *nix OSs (like BSD) > c) interest in free software in general > > I would like to hear opinions from the group. Note that 2 and 3 > are not mutually exclusive. We could immediately decide to have > TSLUG refrain from sponsoring RMS and still change our name > later. > > Don ----------------------------------------------------------------- To get off this list, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with Subject: unsubscribe -----------------------------------------------------------------
