Re: FSF, terminology, and marketing

[Stormy Peters <stormy gnome org>]

I was waiting until others weighed in as I don't want my voice to be weigh more (or less) than anyone else.

Linux

I think the battle for GNU/Linux has been lost and people look at you funny if you say it and then they focus on you saying GNU/Linux instead of whatever you are trying to say. Most people in the world (who know about Linux) understand that Linux now means more than the kernel. They actually say "the Linux kernel" when they want to talk about just the kernel. (And there's a lot more than GNU and the Linux kernel in the average Linux distro.) I think a more important issue would be to make sure we are inclusive of all the "things" that include GNOME from devices to phones to non-Linux operating systems.

Free software, open source and free and open source software

As for free software vs open source, I think there are times to stress freedom and times when it's more important to first connect to your audience. (And some audiences like the US business audience that I hit up for sponsorships use the term open source exclusively. I understand Richard's point that we need to educate them but I believe we first need to connect with them.)

So I'd propose that in GNOME Foundation
official communications, press releases & web pages (not the wiki),
that come just from the GNOME Foundation we use the term free software unless the target audience is one that primarily uses open source - like a fundraising campaign targeting large companies.

Quotes
and joint press releases may use open source (or free and open source software) if our partner or quoted person
desires. 

Thoughts?

Stormy

On Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 9:32 AM, Lefty (石鏡 ) <lefty shugendo org> wrote:

On 9/22/09 7:01 AM, "Murray Cumming" <murrayc murrayc com> wrote:

> On Fri, 2009-09-18 at 17:07 -0500, Brian Cameron wrote:
>> A few people have recently complained to the board that the GNOME
>> community sometimes does not always follow these recommendations.
>
> And they always will complain and they will always be a significant
> minority. And most of the rest of us will just continue to be annoyed by
> it until they stop. The board has better things to do.

What _he_ said.

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