Re: Emacs Webapp/Plugin

[Miles Bader <miles@gnu.org>]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:
>     Someone tell me again why it is a bad idea to develop a
>     Chrome/Chromium (browser or Chrome OS) plugin that is
>     essentially just the basic Emacs bits that we know and love?
>
> For one thing, I am concerned people might use it in Chrome, which
> is nonfree software with a universal back door.  If that caught on,
> it would be a disaster in terms of our primary goal: giving users
> freedom.

Wait, doesn't Emacs run on lots of nonfree systems?

>     The underlying premise is that there are no "desktop" apps
>     available on this imagined system, just web apps and browser
>     plugins.

Is this a meaningful distinction?  I mean, on a system where the
browser is the main "shell," and the browser makes sufficiently
powerful mechanisms available, isn't a web app / browser plugin an
"app" as far as the user can tell?

> That IS a disaster, in terms of users' freedom.  It pushes users
> into total dependence on servers.

What if it's their server ...?

-miles

-- 
Kilt, n. A costume sometimes worn by Scotchmen [sic] in America and Americans
in Scotland.