> > It’s frankly pretty difficult for me at least to distinguish between > Richard-speaking-as-Richard-alone and Richard-speaking-as-the-FSF, and he > never makes the distinction himself. Does he hold some viewpoint that the > FSF does not, or vice versa? That would actually be news to me. >
Personally, I am not all that interested in how he views himself or him in general, but I am interested in what he has been saying in this case. Am I now in a situation where I feel it necessary to urge members not to objectify Richard Stallman? I hope not. Being objectified is not something I would not wish on my worst enemy. :D Maybe he could clarify whether his nominating me as an “enemy of the free > software movement” at Software Freedom Day in 2009 was his personal > position or the FSF’s; I’d been assuming the latter, and as I say, he never > makes a clear distinction himself. > That really is beyond the scope of this discussion. As far as “taking things seriously”, it becomes a little difficult when > we’re being asked to also take things like the necessity of recognizing the > "original designers” — some of them, anyway — of the "GNU/Linux” system, or > the notion that the best piece of software to do a given job is the > “free-est” one as opposed to the “most usable” one “seriously” as well. > This what I was driving at when I said that people are seeing everything they might disagree with about the FSF (or perhaps even Richard too, for that matter) when Richard presented his case about this. You have kind of demonstrated my point. :-). When we are not willing make a distinction between what a person says and does in one case and what they say and do in another it's easy to put people on pedestals or likewise demonetize them such that you get into a situation where you determine a person or a group of people as completely "good" or completely "bad". That is the kind of thinking that leads to avoidable conflicts. In the extreme cases it can even lead to wars. I cannot speak for everyone but I like to think that most of us here have one thing in common: that most of we love free software. Only love is able to overcome all the myriad differences between human beings. Likewise, hate breeds hate. Does anyone here actually hate free software? I seriously hope not and I seriously doubt it is true, too. If neither the FSF is willing to show willing to make compromises so we can get along then of course a conflict is inevitable, but I don't see that happening here. I see Richard as the one doing all the work and so far we seem like the ones who are showing an unwillingness to cooperate with him. Some have suggested maybe GNOME and the FSF do not share common aims, but I cannot see how this would be possible when it is clear that we do from the licences we use on our software and the fact we brand ourselves as a free software project. Am I really the only person who can see that it is a tragedy for us to let preconceptions divide GNOME and the FSF, over something as stupidly simple to resolve, as this? Magdalen
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