Re: Our logo
From: Dirk.Eddelbuettel@qed.econ.queensu.ca
> Could someone in the know please outline in a few words how we
> are were will be are not were not will not be
> affiliated with the GNU project and the FSF?
>
> I always considered being "somehow with the FSF" as one of the stronger
> points of the project, apart from the intrinsic quality of the product.
I think I'd better answer this.
FSF employed Ian Murdock for 6 months to produce their Debian CD. He
spent most of that time working on Debian. During that time, I
perceived some friction with Richard Stallman. I can't say how Ian
felt, but as a volunteer not directly associated with FSF I didn't like
the situation of Richard being the boss of our project leader and
micromanaging the project or having his way when we disagreed with him.
Eventually, Ian got another job.
One point that I remember was that Richard vehmently objected to
non-free programs being present in Debian. At that time, I had gotten a
Debian-Specific license for Procmail from Steven van den Berg, and
Richard thought that I was compromising the philosophical purity of the
system by doing that. Richard is prone to that sort of thing - the
latest occasion was when he suggested we handle the problem of a
unified interface to documentation by hiring someone to hand-translate
all of our documentation into the texinfo format. That would be really
neat, but other than the fact that it satisfies a philosophical goal it
isn't all that necessary. I don't mind arguing with Richard about this
sort of thing, but I'm glad that I can take or leave his advice.
At this point, we are philosophically with the GNU project but there is
no business connection.
Bruce
--
Bruce Perens <Bruce@Pixar.com> Pixar Animation Studios
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