Re: New maintainer

[David Kastrup]

address@hidden (Jens K. Loewe) writes:

> Ah, finally an interesting discussion here.
>
>> The whole point of GNU is the non-acceptance of software denying
>> the users the fundamental software freedoms.
>
> So GNU does not stand *for* something but *against* something?

"Justice" and "fairness" and "freedom" are things that stand
fundamentally against letting things run their natural course,
downwards.

> GNU's whole point is not to be better than others but to point out
> that others are worse?

Nonsense.  GNU's point is to stand for software that is and remains free
to share, modify, run, and study.  It does not do so in a vacuum: it
would not be necessary to take a stand if there was an overall trend to
respect user and developer freedom.  Taking a stand does not happen in a
vacuum.

> That reminds me of a kindergarten.
>
> Furthermore, shouldn't it be the right of a free user to use a
> non-free system at his own will?

It is the definition of a non-free system that you cannot use it at your
own will in many respects.  At any rate, freedom does not mean a
different prescribed path but a choice.  How you use the choice is yours
but it is important that you have the choice in the first place.

The difference between a home and a prison is not how often you go
outside, but whether you can.

The point of the GNU project is to support free software.

If you are to manage a vegetarian fair and your idea of improvement
focuses on the sorely missing hot dog stands and you think a show
tannery a great addition, you are out of your depth.  That's different
from hiring bouncers who keep everybody out wearing leather shows or
stuff.

But a project manager is not managing the visitors, he is managing the
booths and stalls.  And regardless of whether he or she likes a nice
juicy steak at home, a steak hut does not belong on the fair.  And if
his main motivation for organizing the fair was getting the best steak
hut far and wide, he is a mismatch for the fair, even if 90% of all
visitors happen to eat meat at home.

GNU has a message, and as a core project manager one cannot afford to
ignore it.

A church custodian does not need to be devout, but it won't be
acceptable to celebrate orgies in the church either.  He needs to be
aware what the subject of his job and its sensibilities are and deal
respectably with it.

> I don't use GNU for the sole reason that I get my things done fast on
> other platforms, but I solve a lot of problems with FLOSS software
> even on closed platforms. Am I a bad guy now?

Sounds like a utilitarian to me.  I'm not sure why so many people insist
they deserve special praise for going the path of least resistance and
why they consider people offensive who try doing better than that.

I get this sort of defensive-aggressiveness a lot.  I'm not interested
in the life stories and explanations of people who need to convince
themself of something by talking down my life choices.

> I actually considered suggesting myself as a maintainer just to
> contribute at least something to Emacs. I never wrote "upstream" code
> for Emacs but I do that team development thing for money. I guess as a
> Windows and BSD user I'm out of the game though - I disagree with some
> of the points the GPL makes and I'll always prefer the BSD
> infrastructure to GNU; but I really like working with Emacs. However,
> it seems that the Emacs product is less important than the Emacs
> "philosophy" here. No wonders that you can't find a volunteer for
> ethical management on a technical mailing list.

Nobody is looking for an "ethical manager" here.  The FSF has one
already.  But even a technical manager needs to be aware of the
principles of the GNU project and deal with the tasks responsibly that
those imply for the technical management.  Stuff like making sure that
the respective copyright assignments for contributions are in place,
even if neither the manager nor the contributor believes in them, making
sure that the policies with regard to software only available for
specific platforms are heeded, and even making sure that stuff like
plugin interfaces is done in a manner consistent with the discussions
with Richard and other key persons.

That can mean that a technical manager not invested into GNU's
philosophy will likely have to deal with a few things he considers
technically awkward.  That's hopefully a minuscule part of the job, but
when it does occur it still needs to be done in a responsible and
responsive manner.

-- 
David Kastrup