Re: [Reuben Thomas] browse-url.el Opera support

[David Kastrup]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

> The free software movement is based on the recognition that non-free
> software is antisocial and unethical.  It is a social problem, and
> our work is to solve that problem.  Success for us does not mean
> writing popular free programs, it means ending the antisocial
> practice of distributing non-free software.

Restricting the user's choice of what programs he might use for
whatever reasons is also restricting his freedoms.

However, in this case there is no such restriction: you can set
browse-url-generic-program and browse-url-generic-args to support
Opera, and then set browse-url-browser-function to point to
browse-url-generic.

In short: Opera is supported just fine, you just don't have a default
configuration for it distributed with Emacs.

So the question is not whether or not to support Opera (it is
supported via the generic interface), but to offer a default
configuration and cast into code a decision how Opera should be
supported best as considered by the GNU project.

Given that Opera is non-free software, the appropriate choice is to
leave this responsibility with the user.

I would consider the omission of a generic interface an unduly
restriction of the user.  But this is not what we are having here.

If you want to configure your browser to be Opera, it will take you
setting 3 configuration variables instead of one, and making the
decision yourself how to call it.

That's tolerable.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum