Re: [Info-mtools] GNU mtools 4.0.27 released

[Ivan Shmakov]

>>>>> On 2021-04-16 23:44:43 +0200, Alain Knaff wrote:

[…]

 > Moreover, from now on the mtools site no longer contains pre-compiled
 > RPM files.  The reason for this is political rather than technical.

 > Indeed, recently, there have been vile online attacks looking to
 > remove Richard M. Stallman from the FSF board of directors for
 > expressing his personal opinions.

 > I will not stand idly when an icon of this community is attacked.
 > As a symbol of protest against Red-Hat for joining that witch hunt,
 > no RPM packages of mtools are supplied with this release, nor will be
 > supplied with future releases until Red-Hat withdraws from this.

        While I agree that some kind of response to the Red Hat’s
        statement is warranted, I’m somewhat concerned that this
        specific action not as much hits Red Hat, but the users, even
        those of them not involved in the controversy, or actually
        supportive of RMS; as well as possibly those who use .rpm-based
        GNU/Linux distributions with little, if any, relation to Red Hat
        work proper.

        I believe this is something that should be taken into account
        when appropriate response is decided.

 > If you consider expressing your support for Richard, please consider
 > signing the petition at https://rms-support-letter.github.io/

 > Debian packages are still supplied.

        I gather that now that Debian has decided not to issue a public
        statement on this, it’s rather a moot point.  Still, so far
        as I can tell, there’re also users of .deb-based GNU/Linux
        distributions who do not share the opinions of Debian Developers,
        or who aren’t even using Debian packages directly (such as by
        using Devuan or Trisquel instead.)  I don’t think it would be
        appropriate to disadvantage them merely on the grounds that they
        use a tool (dpkg) originally designed for Debian.

-- 
FSF associate member #7257  http://am-1.org/~ivan/