Re: FSF has stopped linking to Debian website
On 2003-09-27, Matthias Urlichs <smurf@smurf.noris.de> wrote:
> Hi, Josip Rodin wrote:
>
>> On Fri, Sep 26, 2003 at 02:23:37PM -0500, Branden Robinson wrote:
>> [Subject: FSF has stopped linking to Debian website]
>>
>> And in other news, nobody cares.
>
> Well, I do care when somebody who's quite visible in the Free Software
> scene is (seen as) a hypocrite.
>
> There's the GFDL fiasco, which I personally think is one of the reasons
> the Debian link was dropped.
I don't see any evidence of that, especially given that links to all
the other *BSD distributions were dropped at the same time. The
stated reason seems perfectly adequate.
> There's the fact that RMS uses a laptop. Are there any laptops with a free
> BIOS? Somehow I doubt that. QED.
When the GNU project was first started, there was no free Unix system
available; the GNU project used Unix computers in order to develop an
alternative. They have been consistent in that it is OK to use
non-free software to develop free alternatives. (Although I'm also
not sure whether they are working on a free BIOS, or whether there is
some other reason RMS believes that using a non-free BIOS is OK.)
Accusing RMS of hypocrisy or inconsistency is incredibly silly. I
disagree with some of his views, but he certainly stands by them
consitently.
Peace,
Dylan
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