Re: Icon designer wanted (Aquamacs Emacs)

[Tim McNamara]

"Luis O. Silva" <l.o.silva@mail.ru> writes:

> Hi,
>
> On Thu, 05 Jan 2006 17:23:55 -0600, Tim McNamara writes:
>
>    TM> How well software works is a central issue in getting people
>    TM> to use it.  If the Free Software movement is content to have
>    TM> a limited market and minimal adoption, well that can't be
>    TM> helped.
>
> There is no market. Free developers don't produce commodities. They
> aren't looking for customers. They are freely working to create a
> free tool (which is always better than the tools which are
> commodities).

Except that many of the free tools are not superior to the proprietary
ones in practice.  And without attending to that, free software risks
being nothing more than a pedantic, philosophical stance and being
nothing other than marginal.

> If people don't understand freedom it is useless for the movement to
> have millions using free tools.

On this I am afraid we have irreconcilable differences.  You (and
David) are over-focused on free software in the abstract sense of
freedom.  Fine as a principle but it does not increase the freedom of
computer users on a daily basis.  IMHO where freedom counts is not in
the abstract but at the keyboards and mouses and displays of users.

If the goal is to promote freedom for computer users and to change the
world for the better, then attention must be paid to the useability of
free software and removing the obstacles to adoption by the
mainstream.  If the goal is to carve out some morally superior stance,
then by all means carry on as you are.  As far as I can tell, that's
all the current approach is going to get you.