From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.tangents Subject: Re: [ELPA] New package: repology.el Date: Sat, 09 Jan 2021 01:37:10 -0500 Message-ID: References: <6193374b-a60d-ba82-91b5-afdede18e3bb@yandex.ru> <72871d3a-3b6a-d6fd-01cc-4248f817923c@yandex.ru> <801f93f3-8c1f-5f5f-6351-e1169bc309ae@yandex.ru> <83k0sp27f6.fsf@gnu.org> <23f3f74f-c3d3-ec74-f1da-d0416d026c0d@yandex.ru> Reply-To: rms@gnu.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=Utf-8 Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:116.202.254.214"; logging-data="31227"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" Cc: emacs-tangents@gnu.org, bugs@gnu.support, ulm@gentoo.org, arthur.miller@live.com, dgutov@yandex.ru, eliz@gnu.org To: "Alfred M. Szmidt" Original-X-From: emacs-tangents-bounces+get-emacs-tangents=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Sat Jan 09 07:37:28 2021 Return-path: Envelope-to: get-emacs-tangents@m.gmane-mx.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([209.51.188.17]) by ciao.gmane.io with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1ky7sO-000823-0T for get-emacs-tangents@m.gmane-mx.org; Sat, 09 Jan 2021 07:37:28 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:39086 helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1ky7sN-000620-0G for get-emacs-tangents@m.gmane-mx.org; Sat, 09 Jan 2021 01:37:27 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]:57316) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1ky7s9-00060N-Ni for emacs-tangents@gnu.org; Sat, 09 Jan 2021 01:37:13 -0500 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::e]:54809) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1ky7s9-0002q4-3k; Sat, 09 Jan 2021 01:37:13 -0500 Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.82) (envelope-from ) id 1ky7s6-0005fY-UM; Sat, 09 Jan 2021 01:37:11 -0500 In-Reply-To: (ams@gnu.org) X-BeenThere: emacs-tangents@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 Precedence: list List-Id: Emacs news and miscellaneous discussions outside the scope of other Emacs mailing lists List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-tangents-bounces+get-emacs-tangents=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "Emacs-tangents" Xref: news.gmane.io gmane.emacs.tangents:537 Archived-At: [[[ 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. ]]] > > You are exagerating. Nobody is saying don't do research, I'm quite > > sure you are capable of finding that information on your own. But it > > is a different thing for GNU do provide that information for you. > But GNU software shouldn't help me in research? > In the research of non-free software, obviously no. I think that oversimplifies the situation. You can use GNU software to do anything. You can use IceCat to read about nonfree programs on the web, look at their repos on GitHub, look at info about them in repology.org -- anything at all. You can use GCC to compile them, too. Researching nonfree software is usually a bad thing to do, because people generally do it so as to use or develop nonfree software. On the other hand, if it is to help replace those nonfree programs, that is a good thing. GNU programs don't try to judge the morality of whatever you are doing. They do what you command. The issue about repology.org is not about that. It is whether we should tell the public about its existence, for instance by including in Emacs a program specifically aimed at that site. -- Dr Richard Stallman Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org) Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org) Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)