Re: New maintainer

[David Reitter]

John,

> If the experience is great on GNU systems, but awful on OS X,
> I'll see this as meaning that changes needing to be made. Conversely, I won't
> notice degradation on GNU systems owing to cross-platform changes, and would
> require those using such systems to inform me.

Do you consider downstream projects a legitimate way of providing that 
experience on the basis of GPL principles without diluting the overall mission 
of the FSF and the GNU project?

By providing support and stability, the upstream project (Emacs) can foster an 
ecosystem that is ultimately a good advertisement to free software.  Downstream 
projects can reach a wider audience than the GNU-only system can, and they can 
incorporate libraries and functionalities that the upstream project is 
unwilling to adopt for philosophical reasons.  With the right relationship to 
these projects, some improvements can also be ported back and thus benefit 
everybody.