Re: `xterm-mouse-mode' has a bogus Custom group

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

storm@cua.dk (Kim F. Storm) writes:

> David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> writes:
>
>> Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:
>>
>>>     The console clearly is exclusively a feature of the kernel.
>>>
>>> The console is implemented by the kernel, but you use it to log in
>>> to the whole system.
>>
>> There are embedded Linux systems that are most definitely not GNU, and
>> for example the system at <URL:http://www.skarnet.org/poweredby.html>
>> runs Linux, but not the GNU system.
>
> Does Emacs run on those systems?

Last time I looked, Emacs was not dependent on glibc and the GNU
utilities.  So there would be no reason for it not to run on such a
system.

> The "Linux kernel console" -- as the user sees it on a GNU/Linux
> system-- is typically just a process started by the kernel which
> runs "/bin/sh".

Nonsense.  The console is the device, like an X terminal is the device
on which an X session runs.

> So when the user interacts with the console, he is interacting with
> GNU software (e.g. bash),

Or zsh, or ash, or ksh and a number of other possibilities that have
nothing to do with GNU.

> not the kernel.

Either we consider the user a babbling idiot that would not be able to
differentiate between GNU and Linux even if he tried, in which case
all the fuss about educating people is at best hypocritical, since we
are then just pleading for our own share of misinformation, or not.

And the whole idea about telling people about GNU/Linux is about
educating, not misleading them in our favorite direction.  We really
undermine our credibility if we do exactly the same kind of
credit-mongering that we accuse others of.  Our case is hard enough to
make without dirty hands.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum