one thing to keep in mind about GNOME foundation and FSF

[Mark Galassi <rosalia galassi org>]

Many people who get involved with free software assume that since RMS
wrote the cornerstone pieces of free software, he and the FSF somehow
provide technical leadership to free software projects.

That is actually not true.  The FSF's important goal is to be a
watchdog for free software.  Technical excellence is almost
irrelevant.

One example of something the FSF did recently, which was important and
nobody else would have done, was to examine the licensing terms in
three books put out by O'Reilly.  O'Reilly claimed that those books
were free documentation.  As it turns out they are not free, but
nobody else was going to do the leg work.  Not especially exciting, is
it?  Similarly, you will not find RMS stating that the important thing
about free software is "quality thanks to peer review of the source
code".  That's just a lucky aside.

The GNOME foundation is interested in the excellence of GNOME
software, of course subject to the fact that it is free software.

I think that understanding this difference will make people be less
upset and distrusting of RMS's actions and words.  You should not look
to him for promoting the technical goals of GNOME, so don't be
disappointed if he does not promote them.