Re: Turning GNU into a bottom-up organization

[Ruben Safir]

On Thu, Oct 24, 2019 at 10:00:05PM +0200, Samuel Thibault wrote:
> Alfred M. Szmidt, le jeu. 24 oct. 2019 15:33:51 -0400, a ecrit:
> >    > The GNU project is not a porject that is suitable for a bottom-up
> >    > organization -- its mission, and only mission, is to see that the GNU
> >    > system is and keeps being free software.  This has been explained
> >    > ample of times.
> > 
> >    I don't see how bottom-up cannot get this. How different is this from
> >    Debian in that regard for instance?
> > 
> > Debian renegaded on their goal of being a 100% free software system,
> > they now include non-free software.
> 
> What is called "Debian" does not include the non-free archive, that
> archive is not enabled by default, the user has to make an explicit
> action to enable it.
> 
> >  That is the danger, and it is very much real.
> 
> Agreed!
> 
> And that is where the social contract can help. While the Debian one
> does explicitly say that it wants to let Debian work also with non-free
> software, the GNU one can explicitly say that GNU contains only 100%
> purely free software, and does not even mention existence of non-free
> software (e.g. no firmware names in the Linux kernel).
> 
> >    > > How can we be sure and how can we support both those who do agree
> >    > > to uphold our values, by assigning roles and delegating
> >    > > responsibilities, and those who just want to contribute.
> >    > 
> >    > It has worked for 30 years,
> > 
> >    No, I have been hearing about issues for 8 years already, i.e. as much
> >    time as I have actually been involved in the GNU project.
> > 
> > And I've been involved for 30 years...
> 
> That's irrelevant.
> 
> You can't say that it has worked for 30 years, when I have seen issues
> for at least 8 years, which is already too long (and these issues may
> have crop up before I have been involved, I can't say, that's what I
> meant).
> 
> Samuel
> 
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When you want to do something your way and RMS disagrees, that is not a
problem... at least for GNU.  Your disagreement and not getting what you
want is not a "problem", not for 8 years and not for 30 years..


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