Re: [ELPA] New package: repology.el

[Arthur Miller]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

>> Date: Fri, 8 Jan 2021 00:00:36 +0300
>> From: Jean Louis <bugs@gnu.support>
>> Cc: arthur.miller@live.com, rms@gnu.org, ams@gnu.org,
>>   dgutov@yandex.ru, ulm@gentoo.org, emacs-tangents@gnu.org
>> 
>> > > I see that repology.org does not make any distinction and it cannot do
>> > > that easily technically. So it does not make neither free software nor
>> > > proprietary better or worse by any reasons. And that is the problem.
>> > 
>> > How is it a problem? where's the promotion, please?
>> 
>> A WWW index of hyperlinks is promotion of hyperlinks. Simple placement
>> of a hyperlink on anybody's website is promotion of the other
>> website.
>
> That doesn't match the meaning of the word, please re-read its
> definition.  Reference and promotion are not the same thing.
>
>> Since 2021, GNU project did not provide references to proprietary
>> software.
>
> What GNU project does is not sacred.  The policy is set by humans, and
> the reasoning for that policy is human reasoning.  Thus, arguments
> about what we have been doing are not valid as reasons against changes
> in that policy, because new convincing reasoning, as well as specific
> new practical use cases brought to light, can legitimately change or
> augment existing policies.  Failure to do so, or even to consider
> changes, would mean that GNU is a dogmatic movement, which it isn't,
> and never has been.
Thank you for this wording. I personally, mostly based on the from
writings on this list, got impression that GNU was on more conservative
and even dogmatic side of things. Might be me missjudging based on
writings of individuals that may or may not be representatives of the
GNU project itself.