Re: MAINTAINERS file

[Juanma Barranquero]

On Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 4:37 AM, Richard Stallman <address@hidden> wrote:

>  That is completely backwards.  The free software movement is a
>  political cause, not a technical one.  "Choose based on technical
>  criteria first of all" is the opposite of what we say.

That's twisting a bit what I said, I think. I specifically said
"selecting among the free alternatives", so it is clear that politics
plays an important part.

>  There are many reasons why GNU packages should support other GNU
>  packages.

Yes. But then, you're equating "support" with "use with preference to
other free alternatives", and I don't think that follows necessarily.

>  The GNU Project is not just a collection of software packages.  Its
>  intended result is a coherent operating system.  It is particularly
>  important therefore that GNU packages should work well with other GNU
>  packages.

By that reasoning, we all should try using GNU/Hurd, shouldn't we?

>  The maintainers of one GNU package should use other GNU packages so
>  they will notice whether the packages work well together, and make
>  them work well together.

Perhaps. But if git were used by 90% of users, and Bazaar by 5% (I'm
making up the numbers, of course), time spent in making Emacs work
well with git would be better spent, from a free software perspective.

>  Other people don't necessarily see which editor you use,
>  but they all see what dVCS you use.

That would be more convincing if every GNU package except by Emacs
were using Bazaar. Is that so?

             Juanma