Re: Questions

[Michael Meeks <michael ximian com>]

On Sat, 2002-11-16 at 14:52, Richard Stallman wrote:
> Bastien Nocera wrote:
>     During Guadec2, you wanted ever single program reprinted to say
>     "GNU/Linux",

	I think possibly, Richard is a victim of his own success; I suspect
that if my every word was hung on then at least every other word would
be offensive to someone.

	Also; I personally had no problem with program patching, - I'm just
about able enough to empathise enough with other people that I can see
that perhaps if you'd spent hours working on (an excellent) programme,
typesetting it, arranging for it to be printed etc. it would be easier
to be irritated by a intensive criticism od a minor detail instead of
the big picture which was - 'Great Programme' :-)

	FWIW - as a candidate, in the past I have been worried about the
projects perceived growing separation from the GNU project - but having
discussed this at the Boston summit, and seen the amazing (to me)
agreement with the 'Free software on every desktop' (type) message - I'm
encouraged that this is in fact a non-issue.

	One of the most pernicious things about the 'GNU/Linux' campaign, is
that (despite the obvious travesty that 'Linux' is) it smacks very badly
of sour grapes / ego stroking[1]. It's also becoming more surreal daily
- as companies such as Sun dramatically increase the amount of Free
software in their systems; is GNU/Solaris the next edict?

	Anyway - I think it's a shame that we get sufficiently fixated on this
minor tactical issue that we irritate each other to the extent that we
talk less about Freedom and more about a 9 character string.

	I'm firmly convinced that our goal must be the promotion of Free
software via the desktop. My feeling is however that alienating people
with trivia is counter-productive.

	Regards,

		Michael.

[1] - I'm not suggesting that this is the case; but that is certainly
      the casual observers perception.
-- 
 mmeeks gnu org  <><, Pseudo Engineer, itinerant idiot