Re: [Reuben Thomas] browse-url.el Opera support

[Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

    But it's becoming clear to me that here too, it depends. After all, Emacs
    supports Windows and Netscape.

We tell GNU package maintainers that it is their choice whether to
support a non-free system such as Windows.  I don't spend time on
Emacs for Windows, but people volunteer to take care of it, so I let
them do it.

It is a strategic decision that having Emacs run on Microsoft Windows
is probably a good idea.  Nobody can be completely certain, but
Microsoft Windows has more users than Emacs does.

    But it's becoming clear to me that here too, it depends. After all, Emacs
    supports Windows and Netscape. It's a bit ironic that if you're a non-free
    system with a near-monopoly (as Windows is and Netscape was) you can get
    support.

>From our point of view, non-free software is equally unethical in
either case.  Supporting a widely used program does us more good and
tends to do them less good.  Also, when a program is widely known,
there is no danger we will inform people of its existence and thus
lead them to try it.