GCC debates project governance [LWN.net]

GCC debates project governance

Posted Apr 2, 2009 16:28 UTC (Thu) by sbergman27 (guest, #10767)
Parent article: GCC debates project governance

"""
The matters to which we defer to the FSF are any matters that they *ask* us to! They own the code. If RMS, for some reason, decides that he doesn't like the phrasing of a comment somewhere, we have to either convince RMS he's wrong or change the comment.
"""

A chilling statement, indeed.

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others ...

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GCC debates project governance

Posted Apr 5, 2009 12:45 UTC (Sun) by oak (subscriber, #2786) [Link]

> A chilling statement, indeed.

Why? Project & copyright owner can decide what he accepts to his
project / code. GPL guarantees that others can fork the code if they
don't agree. I don't see a problem.

People have their own opinions on matters and often the opinions (or
how/when they're expressed) conflict with yours or mine, that's just a
fact of life. Freedom fundamentalists and pig-headed principles are
needed to avoid the freedoms from being corrupted by a gradual slide to
pragmatism and what is convenient. Such people may be awkward to deal
with, but one needs to admire their persistence. You can get them to
change their minds, but it requires finding an argument that works from
their own principles, not yours. And it requires time...

GCC debates project governance

Posted Apr 6, 2009 0:09 UTC (Mon) by jbailey (subscriber, #16890) [Link]

GNU maintainers defy the FSF all the time. It's a give and take. I remember
a number of projects refusing to switch to the GFDL, basically answering "You
want it changed, you do it. I won't block the commits, but I won't do them
either." Some people were stripped of maintainerships, but often those
people just continued to do the work anyway. It sorted itself out in the
end.