Re: New maintainer

[John Wiegley]

>>>>> David Kastrup <address@hidden> writes:

>>> Damning by implication is one thing; setting out to defame other
>>> organizations in order to make one's own appear the standard of virtue is
>>> something else entirely,

> And not at all what I have been saying.

Maybe not what you've been saying here, but what the FSF has been doing. The
way RMS talks about Apple and other companies, using words like unethical,
corrupted, evil; I can't get behind that sort of rhetoric.

But I knew I had differences with RMS before this, so that's not changed. I
also know that I love Emacs and want to help it remain my editor of choice for
a long time to come. If I can serve Emacs independently, from RMS and his
agenda, I'm happy to do so, whether it benefits the FSF's cause or not.

What RMS may not know is that I respect his spirit, the intentions behind his
actions, and the effect he has had on our world as a whole. Free software in
general (if not "libre" software) is without a doubt more real today because
of him, and I've directly benefited from those efforts, both personally and
professionally. So the FSF always has some credit in my bank, so to speak. If
GNU/Linux could be an awesome OS with awesome applications, I wouldn't use my
OS X machine anymore.

What bothers me are the socialistic aspects involved, the _way_ RMS demonizes
other approaches to licensing (eerily similar to how socialism demonizes other
political philosophies), and the way he talks about "freedom" -- while what is
meant is specifically the freedom of the user/consumer, and not the freedom of
the developer/producer. These are reasons I do not support his path as leading
toward true liberty. I _do_ want to true liberty, and for all software to be
as free as RMS could ever want to to be; I just don't believe in getting there
this way.

John