Re: [Savannah-hackers] savannah.gnu.org: submission of LumberMill

[Robert Bushman]

On Tue, 4 Dec 2001, Jaime E. Villate wrote:

> It is frustrating having a piece of code that cannot be executed. And by
> distributing Free Software that depends on non-free software, we would be
> encouraging the use of non-free software. The FSF only accepts the use of
> underlying non-free software when there is absolutely no alternative. For
> instance, when the GNU/Linux system did not exist, we all had to start
> developing free software over non-free platforms. But I don't think it is the
> case with regards to Sun's JDK; substitutes exist, which perhaps are not as
> technically as good, but they will never improve if we kept supporting JDK.
>
> The other point is that in Savannah it is required that
> GPL-compatible licenses be used, to allow packages to work well among each
> other, without legal conflicts and in a self-suficient manner. We don't want
> to depend on proprietary tools that some people are not allowed to use.
>
> Anyway, I'm not a member of the FSF; I'm just a volunteer trying to follow
> the rules set up by the FSF. If you'd like to have a better answer to your
> question, you should ask somebody at the FSF.

Not at all, that's actually a very clear explanation
of an entirely valid reason. Sounds like, in short,
the objective is not just Free source code, but
functioning, Free, systems. Which is a very
commendable objective (and one I enjoy the benefits
of every day with GNU/Linux).

Thanks for the info!

Bob