Candidate Richard Stallman

[Richard Stallman <rms gnu org>]

I've been working for GNOME since years before there was a GNOME.  In
1983, while formulating plans for the GNU operating system, I decided
it ought to include a window system.  Later, around 1988, we obtained
X, but we found out that X only did the lower-level half of the job,
so I decided we needed to develop a free software desktop to do the
rest of the job.  After our desktop initiatives in 1990 and 1994/5
didn't produce a working desktop (*), I became aware of another desktop
project based on a non-free library (**), and spoke to the community
about the problem posed by that dependency.  This inspired Miguel to
launch our third desktop project, the one that succeeded: GNOME.

As president of the Free Software Foundation, I have had years of
experience working with contributors both individual and corporate.
If I am elected to the board of the GNOME Foundation, I will use the
position to improve coordination between GNOME and the rest of GNU--in
regard to technical decisions, public relations, fundamental policies,
and long-term goals.


(*) The second effort produced Guile instead of a desktop, because we
decided we wanted a Scheme package to customize the desktop with.

(**) That library, Qt, is free software today.  This change is probably
partly the result of the energetic development of GNOME.