Re: forwarded message from Richard Stallman

Michael K. Johnson (johnsonm@redhat.com)
Thu, 19 Nov 1998 16:30:29 -0500

David Mosberger-Tang writes:
>Does anyone who contributed to SANE have reservations against SANE
>becoming a GNU program? I think making SANE a GNU program would be
>beneficial to both parties (SANE developers & FSF).
...
[rms wrote]
>A GNU program should not recommend use of any non-free program, and it
>should not refer the user to any non-free documentation.

I object. Trying to encourage freely-available documentation is one
thing, trying to refuse authors the right to refer folks to non-free
documentation when appropriate is objectionable.

>GNU programs to follow them. For example, the documentation files
>and comments in the program should speak of Linux-based GNU systems or
>GNU/Linux systems, rather than calling the whole system "Linux", and
>should use the term "free software" rather than "open source".

Puh-leeze!

I know that my opinions don't mean too much, since I wasn't the one
who ported my backend to SANE, I only encouraged it. But it's still
my code, in part, and I am not impressed by RMS's patronizing attitude
here.

michaelkjohnson

"Magazines all too frequently lead to books and should be regarded by the
prudent as the heavy petting of literature." -- Fran Lebowitz
Linux Application Development http://www.redhat.com/~johnsonm/lad/

--
Source code, list archive, and docs: http://www.mostang.com/sane/
To unsubscribe: echo unsubscribe sane-devel | mail majordomo@mostang.com