Re: two questions for candidates

["John (J5) Palmieri" <johnp redhat com>]

On Mon, 2007-11-26 at 10:28 -0500, Richard Stallman wrote:
> 1. Would you change anything in the GNOME Foundation statement about
> OOXML?

I think the statement was fine ... if you like reading press releases.
It was detailed and stepped through the process of making the decision.
Analysts would love it and our stock would go up if we had any.
Unfortunately your average community member won't read it or if they do
won't fully digest it.  Most wait for a Slashdot article to distill the
contents and as history has shown the Slashdot crowd is none too kind to
even the hint of controversy.  

The fault lies with the Foundation for not communicating it decisions
when they happened in a format that is easily digested.  We should have
anticipated the controversy and eased peoples mind.  We are not going to
win everyone in that respect but we do come out on top instead of being
defensive after the fact. 

> 2. How do you think the GNOME Foundation should support the Free
> Software Movement in general?

The foundation should support the Free Software Movement in general by
supporting people creating Free Software.  By creating an excellent base
to develop on GNOME has fostered a growing community of Free Software
developers.  We have shown it to be profitable for companies and while
some just take the bits and don't contribute back we have seen more and
more contributions coming from places that would traditionally be closed
in their software approach.  It is up to the developers to really create
that great platform of Free Software.  The foundation's role is getting
roadblocks out of the way and facilitating communication between
developers, companies and end users.

-- 
John (J5) Palmieri <johnp redhat com>