Re: [fsfc-discuss] Hello

[Stephen Paul Weber]

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Somebody claiming to be Russell McOrmond wrote:
>On Jan 28, 2012 6:17 PM, "Stephen Paul Weber" <address@hidden>
>wrote:
>> One thing I don't see discussed anywhere, but that I'm curious to other's
>> opition's on, is the connection to GNU.  The FSF has, IMO, been a little 
>> to "married" to GNU in the past.  This is understandable, since RMS 
>> started them both, but has lead to some amount of weakening of the FSF's 
>> ability to represent/advocate *all* Free Software.
>
>FSF USA and the GNU project have close ties, but my understanding is
>that FSF's in other countries are not structured similarily.

Right, which makes sense.

>I'm also not sure what you are meaning as far as ability to represent all
>Free Software.  ... I've not personally seen any issues.   I am quite 
>curious to hear about what you've observed.
>
>Are you by chance thinking  GPL compared to other licenses, or copyleft
>vs non-copyleft?

The fact that GPL is closely associated with both FSF and GNU is certainly a 
part of it, but not the whole picture.

Again, to be clear, I am not against GNU or the GPL.  I personally have no 
direct issue with them.

Some of what I have observed, is people talking about "FSF's brand of 
freedom" or "the embrace-extend practises of the FSF" and similar 
detrimental things because of their negative views of GNU's practises.  
People who hate DRM/TPM have in my hearing disparaged DFD because of ties to 
GNU.  I am not saying this is rational, only that it has happened.

Additionally the "GNU/Linux" debacle (debacle in that people do not 
understand what RMS is trying to promote with that, I think, and not that 
properly describing the OS as more than its kernel) has added to this sort 
of thinking WRT GNU, and thus WRT FSF.

Additionally, I have seen projects (yes, by this point you are going to ask 
me to cite source material, since I seem to be blowing a lot of hot air.  
That is a fair point, though much that I have mentioned up to this point is 
anecdotal from conferences and such.  If people want, I am willing to try 
perhaps to find some references, but I do not have them on hand and cannot 
guarentee my immidiate success) who wish to not even by identified as "Free 
Software" because that term is tied to the FSF and, ultimately, GNU, and 
they do not want to be seen as "another bloatware clone like GNOME" 
(paraphrasing from memory), etc, and thus identify with "Open Source", and 
yet define in their FAQ that "Open Source" is about freedom and rights, a 
concept much more in line with Software Freedom.

So, this is a short (and way-too-anecdotal) summary of my high-level concern 
with close ties to GNU.

- -- 
Stephen Paul Weber, @singpolyma
See <http://singpolyma.net> for how I prefer to be contacted
edition right joseph
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