emacs-devel
[Top][All Lists]
Advanced

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Meanness


From: Eli Zaretskii
Subject: Re: Meanness
Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2008 20:22:56 +0300

> From: David Kastrup <address@hidden>
> Cc: address@hidden,  address@hidden
> Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2008 19:01:11 +0200
> 
> > As long as Emacs is not sold to Microsoft nor bundled with it out of
> > the box, no one can claim that I'm improving non-free operating
> > systems.
> 
> Does that mean that you would not work on supporting Bash on Windows
> since a Bash port has been sold to Microsoft by Interix and is being
> distributed by Microsoft as part of SFU (Services for Unix)?  The same
> appears to hold for GNU file and text utilities, and certainly for the
> "GNU SDK" including GCC.

If working on these tools is okay for their GNU maintainers, it's
probably okay for me as well.

> But that's missing the point.  Of course free software will also get
> used and employed on proprietary systems.  It is one consequence of
> their freedom.  The question was whether we should make it _our_ focus,
> the focus of the GNU project.

You are missing the point.  _My_ focus is making _my_ life easier on
all the platforms on which I need to work.  Because I like others
benefit from what I'm doing, I contribute that to the GNU Project.  I
think that helps the GNU Project move forward, and I have numerous
proofs that GNU maintainers indeed think so, because some of them
actually told me so in person, even though they knew exactly what
platforms I work on.

No one said that the GNU Project should actively try to win the
Windows applications niche.  But there's a world of difference between
that and publicly bashing contributors who happen to work on Windows
or other non-free platforms most of their workdays.




reply via email to

[Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread]