Re: Questions for the board election candidates

["gnomeuser gmail com" <gnomeuser gmail com>]

2012/5/22 Richard Stallman <rms gnu org>:
> How does each candidate propose to make use of GNOME and its
> communication to build support in the user community for free software
> and the freedom it provides?
>
> The free software movement practices pragmatic idealism.  Our ideal is
> freedom for those who use software.  We say that all programs should
> be free, and our practical goal is to bring that about.
>
> The open source camp is pragmatic too, but mostly not idealistic.  The
> promoters of open source generally don't aim to make all programs open
> source.  They recommend a certain development methodology, presenting
> it as a practical issue and not as an ethical requisite.
>
> You could imagine someone saying "ethically, all code should be open
> source", but that's not the views of the open source camp.
>
> The idea of the GNU system follows from the free software movement's
> ideals.  If you want to escape from nonfree software, pragmatically
> you need a free system to escape to.  It has to be 100% free software
> in order to do the job; 99% free software doesn't get you all the way
> out.
>
> That's why we launched GNOME.  In 1998, KDE was free software, but in
> order to use it, one had to use nonfree Qt as well.  Thus, KDE was
> leading to a system that couldn't be 100% free software.  We had to do
> something about that, and what we did is GNOME.
>
> (Nowadays Qt is free software, so KDE doesn't have this problem any
> more.  Part of why Qt is free software is that GNOME put pressure on
> the developers to make it free.)
>
> GNOME's usefulness as a software package is independent of how we talk
> about it.  However, the use of GNOME provides an opportunity to
> educate the users about this issue, in philosophical and political
> terms -- to teach them the idealism of the free software movement.

I don't think we have a duty or even a right to "educate" users in
this fashion. Regardless in my personal experience having given
presentations on the subject, trying to force a political ideology
along with the topic generally leads to glazed over eyes and dismissal
at best. I am happy to talk about such matters if requested but I am
certainly not in favor of using GNOME as a platform to force such
views on people. I am here to present a great modern desktop (and
eventually OS) not an ideology. There happens to be a number of
appealing effects of being Open Source and some limitations created by
the state of affairs (DRMed content, software patents, redistribution
restrictions, e.g.) that I will happily highlight when relevant but I
reject that I have a right to educate people beyond that extend.

> Thus, my question: how does each candidate propose to make use of
> GNOME and its communication to build support in the user community for
> free software and the freedom it provides?

In short, I have no plans to use GNOME as a platform to spread support
for Free Software.

David Nielsen

>
> --
> 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 Ekiga or an ordinary phone call
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