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Searching for common ground between Debian and FSF

Searching for common ground between Debian and FSF

Posted Jul 13, 2012 1:20 UTC (Fri) by ldarby (subscriber, #41318)
In reply to: Searching for common ground between Debian and FSF by dlang
Parent article: Searching for common ground between Debian and FSF

> If you define the "enemy" as your users who are trying to get things done, you are correct.

By enemy I meant the popularity of the software, possible the software itself, and maybe the authors, but not the users.

> The FSF has forgotten their earlier statements that it's acceptable to use closed code when there is no open equivalent yet.

I can't remember where I read this and I can't find a link, but I thought RMS's said it's never OK to use non-free, apart from when replacing it, i.e. in order to bootstrap the GNU project. And if there's no free alternative then to get started writing one. (I'm not saying that's practical, I'm saying that's what his position is...)

> Instead they are trying to say that users should not have the choice of closed code at all.

Yes, the FSF has a zero-tolerance policy for non-free, and trying to prevent it being used, by preventing users from finding out about it, is consistent with that. (although it's pretty much censorship, and very ineffective at that)


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