Re: What would be the best screenshot of Emacs for the homepage?

[Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

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  > >> I understand the idea to promote a FOSS enviromnent vs a proprietary
  > >> one,
  > >
  > > A free environment.

  > Isn't GNOME also open source?  I thought "FOSS" means the conjunction of
  > both.

I should explain that "free software" and "open source" are the names
of two very different ideas.

The free software movement is a campaign for users' freedom.  The open
source non-movement was founded later as a reaction, to bury and hide
our ethical ideals.

See http://gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html
for more explanation of the difference between free software and open
source.  See also http://thebaffler.com/past/the_meme_hustler for
Evgeny Morozov's article on the same point.

The term "FOSS" purports to cite both of these camps without taking a
side.  In practice, it is not really neutral, since it makes "open
source" more visible than "free software".

By contrast, "FLOSS" really succeeds in being neutral.
See http://gnu.org/philosophy/floss-and-foss.html.

However, we don't want to be neutral.  GNU is a project of the free
software movement.  We want to give the free software movement clear
and strong support; we don't support the open source non-movement.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation (gnu.org, fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (internethalloffame.org)
Skype: No way! See stallman.org/skype.html.