Re: Release plans

[Thomas Lord]

Richard M. Stallman wrote:
> I did not "set any standard" just now.  I am simply restating, and
> applying, the goals of the GNU Project which I set in 1983.
>
> Our goal is not "helping users" (i.e., giving them whatever they
> happen to want).  Our goal is establishing freedom for computer users.
>
> Leading people to escape from Windows is a positive result.
> Making use of Windows more convenient is not.
>   

Windows hardly matters anymore.

Windows is not growing much in functionality.  Meanwhile,
what functionality is so often "tied" to it is being whittled away
by programs that run on *any* operating system by sticking to
W3C standards (and closely related de facto standards).

In a sense, the writing is on the wall and the Emacs
*architecture* will inevitably win (although, probably not 
GNU Emacs itself, on the current trajectory):   Javascript
instead of Emacs lisp;  an in-memory, editable DOM object
instead of buffers;  mostly HTTP as the "universal system
call".

Eclipse has attracted a lot of users who, in its absence, would
likely have chosen Emacs.  It is a safe bet, in my opinion, that
what comes next that will "eclipse" Eclipse, will be a Javascript
program that can run in some "A-list browsers".

In this brave new world of W3C standards (and de facto standards
around those) -- the traditional operating system is all but irrelevant.
New programs (of the sort that typical "end-users" run) increasingly
tend to not depend at all on the underlying OS.   The traditional
OS is dead -- irrelevant.

Windows has peaked in terms of its strategic advantages.  It is
doomed to be (slowly) whittled away by new Emacs-architecture / web-
implementation applications.   Supporting or not supporting Windows
in a package like GNU Emacs makes nearly no difference in this
larger trend.   There's a lot of fretting over low stakes here, on this
list.

The more urgent issue concerns the emerging W3C-based world:
what will GNU have to offer there?

-t






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