Re: FSF, terminology, and marketing

[Brian Cameron <Brian Cameron Sun COM>]

Paul:

> * The most important thing we can do as marketers is know our audience.  
> While I respect Brian's comment we should be sensitive to politics, it's 
> really dependent on document we're writing and whom it is for.

Agreed.

> * Most of our marketing is at end users - and for that reason, I prefer 
> "Linux" as that is the common word used by journalists both in the open 
> source press and the mainstream press.

I can understand that position.  As I suggested before, there may be
certain audiences or situations where using different terminology makes
more sense.

For example, if we are doing a press release about something that we
are doing with the Free Software Foundation, then perhaps it would
probably be more appropriate to use the terminology they recommend, for
example.

> * I don't know if I agree that having a good relationship with the FSF 
> is that important.  The anecdotal feedback I have on their recent 
> campaigns, including Windows 7 Sins and Bad Vista is that it does more 
> harm than good.  While I have great respect for the work done in the 
> past on multiple fronts, including the GNU utilities, the GPL licenses 
> and more, GNOME needs to be relevant now and respectful of our current 
> and potential future users.

Still, there is no real value in creating friction where it is not
necessary.  So, even if there is value in using the term "Linux" in
some communications, it seems good to clarify if and when there are
any situations where following the FSF recommendations are recommended.

While we may choose to not use the term "GNU/Linux", perhaps we could
make an active effort to highlight GNU or the free software community in
other ways?

> * Brian, I was curious about an earlier statement you made:  "since we 
> are a GNU project " - are we?  What does that mean?   Looking at the 
> gnu.org <http://gnu.org> website and fsf.org <http://fsf.org> GNOME is 
> not mentioned once.  Searching on gnu.org <http://gnu.org>, the first 
> search result that mentions GNOME is a 10 year old press release around 
> GNOME 1.0.  What is our formal relationship with the FSF and GNU?

The "G" in "GNOME" stands for "GNU".  So, the people who created GNOME
felt it was important to be under the GNU Umbrella of projects and that
our project would be a shining example of a free software project.  :)

   http://directory.fsf.org/project/gnome/
   http://www.gnome.org/about/

Quoting from the last link:

> GNOME is...
> Free
>
> GNOME is Free Software and part of the GNU project, dedicated to
> giving users and developers the ultimate level of control over their
> desktops, their software, and their data. Find out more about the GNU
> project and Free Software at gnu.org.

In fact, I believe one of the reasons why GNOME replaced KDE as the most
popular software desktop on free/open operating systems is because of
its free licensing.  So, the current popularity that we enjoy is due, in
part, to our relationship with the free software community and the FSF.
So, perhaps we should honor that it some ways.

> Those are my long answers.  My short answer - I agree with Andre, and I 
> prefer reality.  I look forward to hearing the Advisory Board's 
> recommendation as well.

Yes, I think this is an issue that a lot of people have already made
strong opinions about, which probably makes it hard to think things
through very well.  So, I think we need to be a bit careful as we
consider this topic to not jump to any quick conclusions.

But, the fact that the lead of GNOME Marketing is not aware that GNOME
is a GNU project is probably a symptom of a larger problem - that we
do not do a very good job of promoting the free software aspects of our
overall ethic.  And regardless of what terminology we use for "Linux" or
"GNU/Linux", we probably should work to improve that.

Brian