[rms at gnu.org: Some problems on gnucash.org]

Derek Atkins warlord at MIT.EDU
Fri Aug 11 16:00:29 EDT 2006


Quoting Thomas Bushnell BSG <tb at becket.net>:

>> I also don't think RMS could usurp the project as you suggest, though it
>> would be a annoying event.
>
> I think you must have misread my message.  You don't think he could
> say "so-and-so is the new official GnuCash maintainer" and produce a
> code fork?  What impedes him from doing so?

Well, the fact that he doesn't control gnucash.org or any of the
servers that run gnucash infrastructure I think would be a major
impediment.   Nothing would stop him from creating a fork, but I
doubt anyone would follow there instead of using what comes from
gnucash.org.

It's not like RMS has any control over the current project.  He can
raise noise and be annoying, but from where I sit it's just hot air.
Sure, he could remove the link from fsf.org or gnu.org.  He could even
point that link to a fork.  *shrugs*  I don't think that would change
the membership of this list or what Red Hat, Debian, Gentoo, SuSE, etc
include in their distributions.  (Well, I'm assuming you wouldn't change
what you did)...

>> I do think it's in everyone's interests to sort out the questions of
>> copyright of the source tree if it's different from what the files
>> indicate presently.
>
> Yes, that's certainly true.
>
>> - I don't like using the overloaded word "Free", and prefer "Open
>> Source".  I defer to the concensus of other gnc-core on this.
>
> My point is that, in the interests of peace, it's ok not to get
> everything we or you want.  Which is more important: avoiding a big
> giant fight with RMS, or not using a word that you think is too
> overloaded?

I think the proper response to RMS is "thank you for your concern.
We've added the link to gnu.org."  And just leave it at that.  I
don't think we should even mention the "Free" vs. "Open Source"
in a reply.

I do think, however, that $title should match the text in the graphics.
I also think that we should not change the graphics until 2.2, which
implies that I do not think we should change the text until 2.2..  And
even then I don't know if we should..

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available



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