From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Jean Louis Subject: Re: Joint statement on the GNU Project Date: Sat, 12 Oct 2019 19:26:54 +0200 Message-ID: <20191012172654.GW15371@protected.rcdrun.com> References: <87ftk4hbhu.fsf@gnu.org> <8eaaa9a2-a5ff-b64a-48bf-954150fecc63@gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]:37239) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1iJLAT-0006fF-Eg for guix-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 12 Oct 2019 13:27:02 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1iJLAS-0006D0-8f for guix-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 12 Oct 2019 13:27:01 -0400 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: List-Id: "Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: guix-devel-bounces+gcggd-guix-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: "Guix-devel" To: "Alfred M. Szmidt" Cc: guix-devel@gnu.org, Libreplanet Discuss * Alfred M. Szmidt [2019-10-12 19:13]: > Hasn't RMS already officially stepped down? > > He resigned from the FSF board, he is still Chief GNUisance. That means nothing in terms of legality and policy making. Stepping down as President of FSF means really only that FSF has different way of management, but not different policy. RMS is a voting member of the FSF and together with other voting members can do many things, including to straighten the organization, replace directors, elect new people and similar. I have read Articles of the FREE SOFTWARE FOUNDATION, INC. And I have read By-Laws and the General Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusets. > What position does he hold within today's GNU project other than > being a wise old person (wise with respect to his topics of > expertise) who is respected a lot? > > While the GNU project is very loose in its organization, it is RMS > who decides what projects get accepts into the GNU project, who is > or isn't a GNU maintainer, and has the final say on anything related > to the project. He is currently the only one promoting free software in the world. See from 27th August 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCh8EcBrptA See from September 4th 2019: https://www.zdnet.com/article/free-software-advocate-richard-stallman-spoke-at-microsoft-research-this-week/ When somebody thinks of programming only, than the person does not understand work of RMS and policy making and planning without which there would be no FSF, no web space, no support for free software, just nothing. Policies for GNU projects have been already said, anybody can propose free software to be included in GNU, follow the guidelines and make it free for all people of the planet: https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/index.html Jean