Hey, "Thompson, David" <dthomps...@worcester.edu> writes:
> On Sun, Oct 27, 2024 at 3:13 PM Ekaitz Zarraga <eka...@elenq.tech> wrote: >> >> Many people on this project have tried to change GNU from the inside and >> are very critical with the FSF (see the https://gnu.tools/). I think >> that's also a good way to do things, changing them from the inside. >> Fixing them for all our friends. Honestly, the argument of getting >> distance with GNU and the FSF is too simplistic to be taken seriously. > > Changing GNU/FSF from the inside has been a losing strategy for at > least a decade, as a conservative estimate. Nothing has meaningfully > changed for the better and the situation continues to deteriorate both > socially and infrastructurally. Many have tried to reform GNU, all > have failed. Some burn out and never return. Those that remain choose > to inhabit the fringes; projects that are historically GNU but in > practice are no longer concerned with the project as a whole (Guile > and Guix, for example.) We unsubscribe from gnu-prog-discuss and move > on. Thinking that GNU can be changed at this point is what is truly > too simplistic to be taken seriously. The GNU brand is and has been a > net negative for Guix. Juli did a great job describing why in an > earlier message. Every conversation about Guix I stumble upon online > inevitably derails into a negative discussion about GNU and it's hard > to break through the noise to explain that Guix is really cool, > actually. It's not priority #1, but we gotta eschew GNU. I'm late to the party but I thought I'd voice my feeling as I read this, catching up slack on the ML. I find the assertions, or more specifically, the level of assertiveness, that GNU is or has been a net negative for GNU a pretty simplified world view, at least from my perspective. I believe GNU's largest contribution is to provide a philosophical foundation, e.g. articulating the software freedoms. They've also proven dedicated in upholding the same goals they've set forth from the beginning; that's not something many organizations can be entrusted with. I know that some contributors (you can count myself as one), got interested in Guix *thanks* to its association with GNU. That you assert so confidently that it's been a 'net negative' for the project almost feels insulting. I also do not happen to share your experience with people looking up to GNU or the FSF in a bad eye, but I don't take part in hip Mozilla/Microsoft/trendy-tech-of-the-moment sponsored events, so who knows. -- Thanks, Maxim
