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Stallman Responds To GNOME Questionaire

Posted by timothy on from the hello-champion-city dept.

proclus writes: "Stallman's response to the GNOME board election process is a lesson in the application of free software principles. For Stallman, GNOME is a GNU project, and the main goal is to promote free software. His consistancy and ethics are admirable, but one wonders if GNOME has grown beyond its roots in the free software community. Is Stallman's view of GNOME too narrow? The GNU-Darwin Distribution and The Fink projects are a case in point. It is simply amazing how many people want to use GNOME together with Mac OSX, and yet in Stallman's view, this would be an example of GNOME falling short of its goals. If free software is used together with proprietary, then the movement has failed to displace proprietary software, and free the users. Is it possible to reach such users with free software ideals, and is it necessary to divorce free software from proprietary in order to accomplish that goal?"

4 of 542 comments (clear)

  1. Gnome the desktop "environment" by nsrbrake · · Score: 2, Offtopic

    Maybe I'm just on crack, but 2 weeks ago I ditched the Gnome desktop. I've always run Enlightenment as my window manager, and for a very long time now have run Gkrellm. So I looked at things and said, what am I running all this extra stuff for? Enlightenment has menus for apps, gkrellms holds any and all applet style things I need, and buttons for frequently used apps. Don't get me wrong, I love Gnome/GTK. All the apps I use use the Gnome and GTK libs, but there was no real reason to use the desktop environment. Plus my memory usage dropped about 20MB. Maybe this is off topic, but do we really need a desktop "environment"? I don't.

    --

    Bah!
  2. Re:I think by tippergore · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    What the hell are you talking about?

    One kills people, the other really likes free software. I don't see the connection here.

    You're a lot like Osama Bin Laden too, in that you drink water, breathe, and walk sometimes. Clearly you're a bloody terrorist.

    You ass.

  3. Re:I think by Mr_Perl · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    The above should be moderated 'troll'

    Comparing RMS to OBL is sinking pretty damn low. It's pretty easy to stand on the sidelines and call names, but the truth of the matter is that RMS has sacrificed a great deal of his personal time producing Free software, and working to get the concept of Freedom in software across to people who otherwise would be totally clueless that such a thing existed in a quality form.

    Comparing his actions with those of a murderer is extremely offensive to me.

    --

    My poetry site welcomes the unusual.
  4. You're proving his point by Walter+Bell · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    The parallels are obvious:

    It's pretty easy to stand on the sidelines and call names, but the truth of the matter is that OBL has sacrificed a great deal of his personal time (as well as his Saudi citizenship and millions of dollars that have been spent or frozen) fighting for his fellow Muslims, and working to get the concept of a free Islamic world across to people who otherwise would be totally clueless that most of the Muslim world considers itself oppressed by the West.

    Comparing OBL's actions with those of an academic who has never put his life on the line for what he believes is extremely offensive to me.

    ~wally