Re: Questions

[Rob Brown-Bayliss <on_the_net clear net nz>]

> Is your e-mail a personal flamefest against GNU project, rms or FSF? Do you have any special
> resentment against them?

No, it's about my belife that rms is so strict in his belife of what
gnome should be that he would have us destroy it, as in the other two
attempts.  It's about my belief that it's ok to run gnome on solaris,
rms thinks it's not and it's my guess that if he could (he cant of
course) he would have the solaris port removed/destroyed and forgoten
about.  (I use solaris, but the same applies to any platform thats not
free)
 
> > I am not so sure Gnome and GNU are closely connected in the public mind
> 
> GNOME = GNU Network Object Model Environment. Did you see the "GNU" on it? 
> So, in the public mind, yes GNOME and GNU relate.

Yes, it may surprise you, but many people have heard thios before... 
But my guess is that most of the public who have heard of linux or open
source havn't  heard of gnu, do not know what it is about, and would
think that GNU is some tech-geek acronym similar to the million others
they dont know about...

> About "pissing off" people from SUN, haven't you yet understood that they are participating
> on GNOME because they _believe_ in the benefits of cooperation, 

Yes, they belive, rms does not...  RMS would have us not mention that
software package X made by company Y for some wizz bang special efx used
in the movie blah was develpoped on gnome because it's not free.  I
belive we should mention things like this as a way of promoting gnome, 

> everyone wins. Were have you been the last three years?

right here, i'm not one of the old old hands, but I have been useing
gnome since well before my second child was born, hes nearly 3 but I
cant give you a time stamp, sorry, but does it matter?  

> Wrong. I refuse to think my own freedom as user depends on MS Office compatibility.

You may be able to live with out it, I know I can, I infact was only a
windows owner/user for about 6 months several years ago so I dont have
ms office files hanging about, but what about my local power company? 
how many xl spread sheets do thay have littering their network?  How
free are they to change to a free software platform if they have to
re-develop all the sheets?  

Or take my father in law, he runs a small retail chain, all his data is
in a ms access database, complete with forms and other code, how free is
he to switch to linux if he then has to pay a programmer to re-develop
this interface?  

So, you see, I belive that we need compatability with ms office products
so that these types of people, non-geeks, can switch over to a free
system, people like sun are really helping here, and rms doesnt wamt the
world to know about it.

> And for Seldom's sake, stop bashing rms just because he is not as funny, promiscuos/detached (politicaly), or photogenic as 
> lbt (Linus Benedict Torvalds) or other people.

Whos bashing, I asked some questions, I have a different perspective,
get used to it (as rms has) because there are a lot of people in the
world and most of them dont like either of our ideas... 

-- 

  Rob Brown-Bayliss
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