Re: Icon designer wanted (Aquamacs Emacs)

[Lennart Borgman]

David Kastrup wrote:

> Correct.  But the work that I have been criticising was intended to
> make it _harder_ to switch from MacOSX to GNU/Linux, by providing
> features only for MacOSX.
>  
Thanks. If you see it this way then I understand what you write. It is 
however still a bit difficult whether some things that can not be made 
portable at the moment really makes it harder to switch. (Please excuse 
me if I am drifting off a bit here. I do that to be more clear.) Suppose 
those things makes Emacs more acceptable on that particular proprietary 
platform. Suppose also that those things depends on OS features that 
does not yet exist on GNU/Linux. Is it in the long run then better to 
provide those things on the proprietary platform or not?

To me the answer is not self evident. Providing this "things" could in 
the long run make a pressure on GNU/Linux to provide them too. I have 
the feeling that this could be the case for some things in the GUI for 
example. (Last time I tried GNU/Linux I dropped it partly because I did 
not understand how to use the keyboard for all tasks. I never use mouse 
if I can avoid it: For sure I want to try again, but I want that "thing" 
to be implemented in GNU/Linux - in a manner that I should not have to 
relearn. That is me of course, but I suspect there are more persons like 
me in that respect.)

> I don't see hurt feelings (the only one getting personal instead of
> focusing on the facts in this thread was Tim, but nobody took him up
> on that).  I see quite opposed viewpoints.
>  
You have to search for the feelings. But it is very good if this can be 
seen as opposing viewpoints.

> There is a difference between making Emacs available for proprietary
> systems (which makes it easier for people to switch from proprietary
> to free systems), and improving it for proprietary systems only (which
> makes it harder for people to switch from proprietary to free
> systems).
>  
You are right. But I want to add that improving it for GNU/Linux only 
also can make it harder for people to switch from proprietary to free 
systems. I guess you agree, but I still want to make it clear since I 
think it is a very important point too.