From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.bugs Subject: Re: [Reuben Thomas] browse-url.el Opera support Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2004 15:12:08 -0500 Sender: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Message-ID: References: Reply-To: rms@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1074543526 2005 80.91.224.253 (19 Jan 2004 20:18:46 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2004 20:18:46 +0000 (UTC) Cc: bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org, d.love@dl.ac.uk, jas@extundo.com Original-X-From: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Jan 19 21:18:36 2004 Return-path: Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1Aifr2-0000qD-00 for ; Mon, 19 Jan 2004 21:18:36 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.24) id 1AifqY-00010R-8Y for geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Mon, 19 Jan 2004 15:18:06 -0500 Original-Received: from list by monty-python.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.24) id 1AifnH-0008Tf-7F for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Mon, 19 Jan 2004 15:14:43 -0500 Original-Received: from mail by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.24) id 1Aifma-0008A6-5h for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Mon, 19 Jan 2004 15:14:32 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.164] (helo=fencepost.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.24) id 1AifmZ-00089v-T1 for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Mon, 19 Jan 2004 15:13:59 -0500 Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.24) id 1Aifkm-0005Ns-8X; Mon, 19 Jan 2004 15:12:08 -0500 Original-To: Reuben Thomas In-reply-to: (message from Reuben Thomas on Sun, 18 Jan 2004 23:27:13 +0100 (CET)) X-BeenThere: bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.2 Precedence: list List-Id: Bug reports for GNU Emacs, the Swiss army knife of text editors List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.bugs:6644 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.bugs:6644 But it's becoming clear to me that here too, it depends. After all, Emacs supports Windows and Netscape. We tell GNU package maintainers that it is their choice whether to support a non-free system such as Windows. I don't spend time on Emacs for Windows, but people volunteer to take care of it, so I let them do it. It is a strategic decision that having Emacs run on Microsoft Windows is probably a good idea. Nobody can be completely certain, but Microsoft Windows has more users than Emacs does. But it's becoming clear to me that here too, it depends. After all, Emacs supports Windows and Netscape. It's a bit ironic that if you're a non-free system with a near-monopoly (as Windows is and Netscape was) you can get support. >>From our point of view, non-free software is equally unethical in either case. Supporting a widely used program does us more good and tends to do them less good. Also, when a program is widely known, there is no danger we will inform people of its existence and thus lead them to try it.