Re: Revamped Gnome.org

["J.B. Nicholson-Owens" <jbn forestfield org>]

Andreas Nilsson wrote:
> "GNOME is an Open-Source <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source> Operating
> System <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_System> built to be stable..."
>  I think some people would not agree that GNOME is an Operating System. 
> GNU/Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris are operating systems, GNOME is a Desktop 
> Enviorment (or Desktop Suite as said in the What is GNOME-box sounds nicer).

I thought that GNOME was the official desktop of the GNU Project, and thus had
to do with the free software movement, not the open source movement.  Looking at
the Wikipedia reference you included, I see that GNOME actually predates the
coining of the term "open source" and the Open Source Initiative (GNOME started
in August 1997, the OSI and "open source" in February 1998).

The GNU Project seems interested in getting credit for their work and the
community they started; from
<http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html>:

> We are not against the Open Source movement, but we don't want to be lumped
> in with them. We acknowledge that they have contributed to our community, but
> we created this community, and we want people to know this. We want people to
> associate our achievements with our values and our philosophy, not with
> theirs. We want to be heard, not obscured behind a group with different
> views. To prevent people from thinking we are part of them, we take pains to
> avoid using the word ``open'' to describe free software, or its contrary,
> ``closed'', in talking about non-free software.