Re: GNOME now

[Richard Stallman <rms gnu org>]

    I agree completely. However, that doesn't mean we should make it
    purposefully *hard* to get those things. Should we warn people?
    Absolutely. They should know what they are doing and be informed. But
    that doesn't mean we need to make it hard, and certainly not on
    purpose.

The issue is not about making them hard to install.  The issue is
about not making them particularly easy to install.

Any freedom-respecting system provides a general method to install
whatever program you wish.  We try to make that general method as
convenient as possible.  No package can be harder to install than
that; therefore, to make installation of a certain package hard is not
even a real option.

The point is, we must do nothing special to facilitate or encourage
installing or using a proprietary program.  It must not get any
special "integration".  We must not give favoratism to an injustice.

GNOME is part of an effort to help users reject nonfree software.  Our
long-range goal is to put an end to it.  We are unlikely to achieve
that goal in the coming year, and maybe not in the coming decade.
However, if we want to keep advancing towards that goal, we must
present and support the goal.  To do this honestly, we must avoid
acting in ways that contradict the goal.

See http://gnu.org/philosophy/compromise.html for more explanation.




-- 
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