Re: Turning GNU into a bottom-up organization

[Samuel Thibault]

Alfred M. Szmidt, le jeu. 24 oct. 2019 15:33:51 -0400, a ecrit:
>    > The GNU project is not a porject that is suitable for a bottom-up
>    > organization -- its mission, and only mission, is to see that the GNU
>    > system is and keeps being free software.  This has been explained
>    > ample of times.
> 
>    I don't see how bottom-up cannot get this. How different is this from
>    Debian in that regard for instance?
> 
> Debian renegaded on their goal of being a 100% free software system,
> they now include non-free software.

What is called "Debian" does not include the non-free archive, that
archive is not enabled by default, the user has to make an explicit
action to enable it.

>  That is the danger, and it is very much real.

Agreed!

And that is where the social contract can help. While the Debian one
does explicitly say that it wants to let Debian work also with non-free
software, the GNU one can explicitly say that GNU contains only 100%
purely free software, and does not even mention existence of non-free
software (e.g. no firmware names in the Linux kernel).

>    > > How can we be sure and how can we support both those who do agree
>    > > to uphold our values, by assigning roles and delegating
>    > > responsibilities, and those who just want to contribute.
>    > 
>    > It has worked for 30 years,
> 
>    No, I have been hearing about issues for 8 years already, i.e. as much
>    time as I have actually been involved in the GNU project.
> 
> And I've been involved for 30 years...

That's irrelevant.

You can't say that it has worked for 30 years, when I have seen issues
for at least 8 years, which is already too long (and these issues may
have crop up before I have been involved, I can't say, that's what I
meant).

Samuel