Re: Making Emacs more friendly to newcomers

[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. ]]]
>
>   > Seems
>   > like world has realized power of open source, which is great.
>
> If people have realized the usefulness of the existing free programs,
> that is good.
>
> If people realize the value of the _freedom_ that free software gives,
> and learn to demand this freedom, that would be GREAT.
>
> Using the term "open source" tends to cover up that crucial point.
> For the free software movement, that is self-defeating.  So please
> let's make an effort to call our work "free", "libre", or both -- not
> "open".
>
> See https://gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html
> for more explanation of the difference between free software and open
> source.  See also https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-meme-hustler for
> Evgeny Morozov's article on the same point.

Yes of course RMS, I am completely with you when it comes to free
software and freedom. I definitely appreciate all you have done
through history, not less initiating everything.

It is just that sometimes, in everyday speech we don't always use
official, full, long names for stuff or hard distinctions because
we tend to shortcut things in speech. It happends in all languages,
fields of human activity etc. So we don't always say GNU/Linux, we
say Linux even when we mean GNU/Linux, just as we don't always say
Microsoft Windows but just Windows, or Apple OSX but just OSX etc.
Same thing happened there, I said open source as an umbrella term,
with no wishes diminish value of free software or not being aware
of distinction.

As a side not, personally I think that once most people realize
the power of community collaboration and openess, which might be
happening, maybe there will even not be a need for enforcing
"freeiness" as with GPL3, just as we don't need a law to enforce
other things in life when they become peoples identity becuase
people wish to do those things anyway. But maybe it is just utopia
thinking, don't know, but I think both "open source" and "free software"
is on the raise (just my personal opinion).