Why the politics

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Article #349

#349

From: Richard Stallman
Date: Wed, 12 Dec 1990 21:54

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The purpose of the GNU project is to promote cooperation within
society, in particular the sharing of software.  We write software in
order to get people involved in sharing.  The means we use are
technical, but the purpose is sociopolitical.

There are occasionally people who want to use GNU software but have
contempt for the reasons for which people work on it.  They tell the
volunteers, in effect, "Shut up with the philosophy and write me some
more software."  To me, this seems ungrateful as well as short-sighted.

Promoting a different attitude is what the GNU project is all about.
This is not done by force--people can keep that attitude if they want
to.  However, if they disagree with the aims of the GNU project, the
proper place for them to say so is on gnu.misc.discuss.  That's the
group for discussing whether the aims and methods of the GNU project
are good ones.  The other GNU newsgroups/mailing lists are for
*carrying out* the work of the GNU project--to attain both the
immediate technical subgoals, and the ultimate social goals.

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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!AI.MIT.EDU!rms
From: rms@AI.MIT.EDU (Richard Stallman)
Newsgroups: gnu.g++.help,comp.lang.c++
Subject: Why the politics
Message-ID: <9012122154.AA24034@mole.ai.mit.edu>
Date: 12 Dec 90 21:54:58 GMT
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