Re: FSF, terminology, and marketing

["Lefty (石鏡 )" <lefty shugendo org>]

On 9/18/09 3:40 PM, "Andre Klapper" <ak-47 gmx net> wrote:

> Am Freitag, den 18.09.2009, 17:07 -0500 schrieb Brian Cameron:
> > The Free Software Foundation (FSF) encourages the usage of the term
> > "GNU/Linux" instead of the term "Linux", and also discourages referring
> > to free software and licenses as "open source".
>
> > Thoughts?
>
> See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU/Linux_naming_controversy
>
> My very personal opinion: There's a reality out there, and there's the
> fundamentalists of the FSF. I prefer reality.

I'm not in favor of complicating terminology, especially when it makes life
more involved and in need of explanation. I don't want to be talking to a
reporter and find myself being asked: "I've heard of _Linux_... What's
_GNU/Linux_?"

I don't feel obligated to support this FSF's reasoning (with which I happen
to disagree) in this matter. Let's not (again) make the sort of mistake of
"marketing to ourselves" that I talked about at GCDS: this brouhaha over
names, which is really about who's getting credit, means less than nothing
to the world at large, the folks to whom we _should_ be marketing.

If the FSF can somehow persuade people at large to start calling it
"GNU/Linux" after having failed to do so for going on two decades, fine, but
I don't see that we need to stake that position out for our own. Similarly,
I'd be very unhappy if we were to make the term "open source" unwelcome.

I'm more than happy to keep good relations with the FSF, all other things
being equal, but if becoming a subscriber to terminology wars--something
which, again, means nothing to our "target audience"--then I wonder whether
"all other things are equal"...