Re: Question of Aiding and Abetting Proprietary (or non-free) Software in GNU projects

[Yasuaki Kudo]

Hi,

I just wanted to follow up that I meant to ask:
 
- Endorsing Free Software to be available on non-free systems, so as long as it 
is understood that it is an invitation to the fully Free System, not just 
partial - is this stance well shared among the members and participants of 
FSF/GNU projects?  Or is it the case that Richard Stallman is rather uniquely 
more generous than others?

Sorry I should have been clearer.

-Yasu

> On May 17, 2022, at 18:54, lkcl <luke.leighton@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> On Tue, May 17, 2022 at 2:00 AM Yasuaki Kudo <yasu@yasuaki.com> wrote:
>> 
>> If this is the case, a few more follow-up questions:
>> 
>> - Is this attitude widely shared among the participants of FSF or GNU 
>> projects?
> 
> "attitude" is a very strong / loaded word, it is making me hesitate to answer
> "yes or no".
> 
> there is a goal: that goal is the combination of Ethical behaviour and
> principles
> applied to Software usage and development.
> 
> the *advice* of - or more like the documentation behind - the GNU Project
> and of the Free Software Foundation (which is very different from an 
> *attitude*)
> is to promote that combination of Ethical behaviour and principles as applied
> to Software usage and development.
> 
> people can have a "bad" or a "good" attitude whilst also still respecting
> (or disrespecting) those principles.  i've seen that happen.
> 
>> - Are there GNU projects other than Guix, in which helping people with 
>> special
>> needs for their proprietary systems, by purposefully discussing and sharing 
>> the
>> knowhow, is shunned - perhaps with some of the participants even declaring
>> to leave the project unless it is? 😅
> 
> Dr Stallman's perspective is amazingly clear and very respectful.
> what i have seen him do is to make it clear what the goal of the
> GNU Project is (to promote the combination of Ethical behaviour
> in the form of Software), and to *very respectfully* redirect anyone
> wishing to *disregard* or undermine that goal to move their discussion
> elsewhere.
> 
> in the version of the GNU Maintainers documentation that i was
> helping to edit, it gives advice here on how to respectfully deal with
> this situation.  it does *NOT* imply "go be a complete dickhead and
> smash people's opinions into the floor because they want to use
> nonfree software" because by doing so you are, yourself, basically
> being a dickhead and undermining Free Software as a result.
> 
> in circumstances where people are being dickheads, chances are high
> that anyone who left, and then had their system hacked (or it becomes
> unstable / unusable) because they used nonfree software, would go,
> 
>    "shit, i should have listened to those people who told me of the
>     consequences  of using nonfree software..."
> 
> at which point there are *two* possible paths for the thoughts in their
> head:
> 
>    1) "... but they were such disrespectful dickheads that i am
>         never going back even though it would be beneficial for me"
> 
> or:
> 
>    2) "... and they were so respectful i think i'll go back sheepishly
>         because from their behaviour when i *wasn't* listening to them,
>         i have confidence that they won't attack me or try to undermine
>        me"
> 
> you see how that works?
> 
> l.