Re: [PATCH] Remove special requirement to disable startup message.

[Richard Stallman]

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

  > * lisp/startup.el (inhibit-startup-echo-area-message): Replace custom
  > string with t.
  > (display-startup-echo-area-message): Only check if
  > inhibit-startup-echo-area-message is truthy.

Please do not make this change.

  > Not only is the checking mechanism in
  > `display-startup-echo-area-message' naïve and error-prone (see
  > bug#13208), but it does nothing to stop the site from disabling the
  > message,

OF COURSE this does actually stop people from disabling the message.
It isn't intended to.  In free software, we cannot actually stop
people from making a certain change.

This code blocks the most obvious way for the site to disable the
message for all users.  That's exactly what it is meant to do.  When
this doesn't work, the person will investigate why not, read what we
said about the issue, and may decide not to do it.

Please leave the code alone.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation (gnu.org, fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (internethalloffame.org)
Skype: No way! See stallman.org/skype.html.