Re: [Savannah-hackers-public] Savannah and the present

[Alfred M. Szmidt]

   > It seems that http://notabug.org also accepts non-free programs, for
   > example:
   > 
   >   https://notabug.org/nelis/hg-shopp-theme
   > 
   > This has no license information what so ever.  If this is in error or
   > not, I don't know. 

   This should have not happened, according to what I know. I'm putting the
   NAB admin in CC, hoping he will give you a satisfying answer.

Thank you.

   > People who call the GPL "viral", and "restrictive" are already people
   > who would be unwilling to use Savannah, since they are already hostile
   > to the idea of computer user freedom -- it doesn't matter to them what
   > Savannah looks like.

   But it gives them some arguments in favor of their labelling of the GNU
   Project as elitist and dated ("just look at Savannah").

People who are hostile toward our goals will always find an excuse to
call us names and attack us, there is little we can do about it.  If
we have a "pretty" web page, they will attack us for that.

   > The goal of Savannah, and the GNU project isn't to make more GNU
   > projects -- it is to provide a free software hosting platform and
   > a free operating system.

   But outside of GNU, the GPL isn't very common.

It is the most common free software license being used, it can't be
much more common than that.

   I think the goal of the GNU Project should be to take as many
   project under its umbrella as possible, [...]

There are many good reasons to reject a free software project to be
part of the GNU project -- there is another project that does the same
job being the most common reason.

But for before a project can become a GNU project, the hackers who
work on it have to have at least aligned their views with the views of
the Free Software movement and the GNU project -- Savannah looking
pretty or not has little to do with ethics and morals.