Re: Intro to GNOME and the FSF

[Wolfgang Sourdeau <wolfgang ultim net>]

   One of "our" goals (SuSE's) is cooperation; misusing a project like
   GNOME for propaganda wouldn't be helpful.  TeX and/or XFree86 are worth
   to have a look at.

TeX and XFree86 have been chosen as "external" components of the GNU
system as well. GNOME, as the official desktop environment of the GNU
system is the ideal place to make regular people (i.e. people who have
no clue about computing) who will use the system understand what this
system is meant for (to provide them freedom with their computer).

   > Nonetheless, I suggest you strongly to read carefully the philosophy
   > pages on www.fsf.org. It will help you understand what the issues are
   > regarding the GNU project, the GNOME project, etc...

   Yes, but this doesn't imply that the GNOME Project has to explain the
   GNU Project and the goals of other interested parties.  I hope you'll
   see the point.

It doesn't for sure. I am just suggesting to do so because GNOME is an
ideal place to reach the regular people, as it is the first component
of the system they will use. This doesn't mean that introduction has
to be a local mirror of http://www.gnu.org...

I found that the introduction to "GTK/GNOME programming"
(H. Pennington) (nice book btw) by Miguel (nice intro too) had a few
good points related to that issue. The whole intro is just a few pages
long (3 or 4 if I remember correctly). If you strip the parts related
to the history of GNOME (we did this and that guy did that, so we
obtained that other this in 1998...) or to GNOME programming, you get
a good reduction with the main points covering the "Why GNU and why
GNOME" questions.


Wolfgang