Re: What's GNU -- and what's not

[John Darrington]

On Sat, Feb 08, 2020 at 11:57:45AM -0500, DJ Delorie wrote:
> ams@gnu.org (Alfred M. Szmidt) writes:
> > You make the assumption that the views of the maintainers are the
> > views of the GNU project -- this has never been the case.  GNU
> > maintainers do not define what the GNU project is.
> 
> Because we are all code monkeys, aka programming slaves.  As long as we
> do what we're told we can be as mean and horrible as we want, because
> GNU only cares about results, not whether people like us or not.

That's a somewhat negative way of putting it, but I think it is
more-or-less accurate.  The GNU system exists primarily for the
benefit of its users and not its authors.   What people think of us is
not of the highest importance. 

Having said that, I hope that all GNU contributors do get a sense of
purpose, recognition and self-worth.   For that reason I do not
subscribe to the opinions of some,  who wish to dictate that
contributors must concur with their populist ideas. 

There are a number of technical and organisational decisions within
GNU, which I personally disagree with.   But an environment where
every decision was what I wanted would be despotic. 

We must all learn to be tolerant of others - even those who are
intolerable.    Note that tolerating others does not mean we have to
agree with them.  Those are two different things. 

J'