Re: State of the GNUnion 2020

[Kaz Kylheku (gnu-misc-discuss)]

On 2020-02-20 10:06, ams@gnu.org wrote:
> I'm not saying that GNU will necessarily stop growing and decline. What
>    I'm afraid is that it might just become insignificant compared to
>    others, and thus its voice for the 4 freedoms become less and less
>    heard.
>
> I think everyone would agree that we do not want the four freedoms to
> become irrelevant, or that the GNU project be forgotten.  And I think
> everyone can also agree that there are groups that are working against
> it (see e.g. the whole idea of "ethical" licenses).

There are more issues than four freedoms.

For instance, the software developed under the GNU license, conforming
to all the required freedoms, can easily be the platform for a weapons
system used to strike non-military targets in contravention of the
UN Charter.

The suffering caused by users not having the right to build from
source, modify and share the programs they use is rather one
of these:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_World_problem

Don't you think?

Debates that are hinged to First World Problems get so heated
precisely because the stakes are so small.

It's just a bourgeoise thing. Look, I have a good
tech job in a safe country, my belly is full. What to do? I know,
I will get pissed off at proprietary software!

Fast forward a few decades, and Microsoft is making in boatloads
of money running a cloud business on GNU/Linux.

Don't get me wrong; there are important issues this Digital Age.

Unfortunately, most of them are not fixable simply via copyright.