Re: GNU/Hurd section in webpages

[Marcus Brinkmann]

On Mon, Oct 13, 2003 at 06:04:51PM -0400, Thomas Edward Hart wrote:
> From the content of the GNU web pages, it seems that linking to sites 
> that link to or promote non-free software is not the same as linking to 
> non-free software. For example:
> http://www.gnu.org/bulletins/bull18.html#SEC35

This bulletin is from early 1995.  At that time (until Nov 1995), Debian
founder Ian Murdock was supported financially by the GNU project.  It did
not contain non-free software, I'd guess.  The break up occured because of
technical differences.

> http://www.gnu.org/directory/All_Packages_in_Directory/deroff.html
> 
> These links link to or otherwise promote Debian.

This link from the software directory goes to the "homepage" of the deroff
package, which doesn't exist outside Debian.  So it links to a small part of
Debian, because that's what the package maintainer of deroff said it should
point to if people want to know more about the deroff package, which is free
software.
 
> There are also links to Red Hat:
> http://www.gnu.org/directory/Software_development/prog/java/Mauve.html

Same thing, just in red ;)

This is not endorsement.  Endorsement would be if GNU would say: "Here,
everyone go to www.debian.org and install Debian GNU/Linux".  GNU does not
do that, because of the non-free section that Debian is providing.

The same will be true for the Debian GNU/Hurd.  Although I never compiled a
non-free package for Debian GNU/Hurd, eventually people might, and you can
not stop them.  So, if GNU does not endorse Debian GNU/Linux, how could it
endorse Debian GNU/Hurd?  Or any other distribution that is not committed to
not make non-free software available to their users.

> Also, regarding the fact that there's no direct "Here's a GNU/Linux 
> distribution" link on the GNU web pages, I should point out that 
> GNU/Hurd is *much* more dependent on the support of the GNU project than 
> GNU/Linux is!

Well, that is a matter of fact, but it doesn't override the fundamental
issue of non-free software.  We do compromise, and we do want to become rich
and famous, but not at the price of giving up our principles.

Thanks,
Marcus

-- 
`Rhubarb is no Egyptian god.' GNU      http://www.gnu.org    address@hidden
Marcus Brinkmann              The Hurd http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/
address@hidden
http://www.marcus-brinkmann.de/