Comment on "Nine Attitude Problems in Free and Open Source Software"

[MJ Ray]

Yavor Doganov <yavor at gnu.org> wrote: [...]
> To teach them to insist on their freedom, you have to set an example.
> The GNU project has always done this -- there was never a /non-free
> directory at ftp.gnu.org, and [...]

No, it just gets labelled as a manual, or a political text, or ...

> [...]  Debian's contribution to the Free World is
> tremendous, and nobody could ever deny that.  On philosophical level,
> they are failing because they accepted the "ruinous compromise".

On the philosophical level, I believe that the compromise with legacy
manual publishers that the GNU project accepted (allowing the likes of
O'Reilly to have unmodifiable adverts in manuals for free software, in
order to encourage publication http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-doc.html
) is far more ruinous than the debian project continuing to support
users of stuff that the free software community hasn't yet obsoleted.

> [...]  Debian as a project cannot teach users to
> defend their freedom. [...]

Then nor can FSF, because it has accepted many compromises which means
its message inevitably must contain "but your freedom doesn't matter
in cases X, Y and Z".  I have some hopes that other, member-led
organisations will be able to teach users clearly, but they're not
doing so yet.

Regards,
-- 
MJ Ray (slef)
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