Re: Question for candidates

[Richard Stallman <rms gnu org>]

    I think there's a group of people that believe very strongly in free
    software and will use GNOME just because it's free software.

    But most of the world will use GNOME because it works well for them. (For
    many different reasons: accessibility, cost, features, ...) To them, the
    fact that it's free software will be an additional benefit, something that
    makes them feel good about the software they use, but unlikely to be the
    only reason they decide to use GNOME.

You're surely right about these two groups, which are two sources of
possible success for GNOME.

Most of the work of GNOME aims at the people in the second group.  We
work to improve GNOME in a practical sense so that more people will
decide it "works well".

My point is that GNOME should also make efforts to educate these
people about freedom, which can lead some of them into the first
group, whereupon they will reject our nonfree rivals on ethical
grounds.

Even a small amount of work (small compared with the big job of
improving GNOME technically) can be effective, but that requires
planning and thought.

It's not inevitable that GNOME will be practically superior to what
Apple and Microsoft deliver, but GNOME is certain to be ethically
better as long as it is free software.  This is our inherent advantage
and we should make the most we can out of it.

The candidates have focused their attention on how to make GNOME
better technically and how to raise awareness of GNOME in regard to
practical issues.  I ask the candidates to turn their attention for a
moment to how to make the most out of our advantage.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation
51 Franklin St
Boston MA 02110
USA
www.fsf.org, www.gnu.org
Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software.
  Use free telephony http://directory.fsf.org/category/tel/