Re: Privileges and practicalities [was: Re: [ELPA] New package: repology.el]

[Arthur Miller <arthur.miller@live.com>]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

> [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
> [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
> [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]
>
>   > No.  If you have to use Zoom for your classes or meetings, you have to.
>   > If you need to use WhatsApp, you have to.
>
> Not necessarily.  I know people who have pressured/convinced
> institutions such as schools to let them use free software instead.
> It is not easy, and only a fraction succeed -- but that is better than
> zero chance.
>
> Pkease do not exaggerate hopelessness.
>
> You are aware of many forms of mistreatment of disprivileged groups.
> Usually there are campaigns to end those patterns of mistreatment.
> Society is starting to become aware of them.
>
> Nonfree software is an injustice too.  Escaping it is not easy -- but
> our work is to make it easier and encourage people to escape.
Indeed. Well said.

> Hardly anyone recognizes this injustice, so one of our priorities is
> making people notice.  Every time I mention that I refuse to use Zoom
> or WhatsApp, it is a chance to make people aware of the issue,
> and that is progress.
>
>
>   > If you make it hard to use non-free software one _has_ to use with free
>   > software they _want_ to use, this is effectively a discriminatory,
>   > exclusionary, and unegalitarian practice.
>
> We never _make_ our programs not run on nonfree systems.
> You're attacking a straw man.
>
> Perhaps you've misunderstood what our practices are.
>
> We make our programs work with free software because that's what we
> want.  If you want to change them to interoperate with some nonfree
> program or system, you are free to do that.  We might even help
> maintain your changes, if they are easy to merge in.
I think this is the line of action that should be definitely be worked
more on.

> But we always give priority to using software in the Free World,
> on GNU.
And together with the statement above, I think the more progress could be
made if make GNU OS (Linux based) more attractive to more
people. Unfortuantely most people as you say are neither aware of the
issue not do they care for anything else but technical side of the
computing. It is sad fact, that people don't value their freedom and
privacy more, but it is a fact we have to work with nontheless.

I think if GNU OS is made more compelling for more people on
other premisses than just privacy and freedom, for example economics
in both short and long run (politics again), than it might attract
bigger grassroot which might give more inertia to GNU.