[Fsf-friends] Re: ? Is the GPL completely misunderstood?

[Raj Mathur]

>>>>> "RMS" == Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

    RMS> Your response makes some good points--however, in order to be
    RMS> a true friend of the FSF, you should not call the whole
    RMS> system "Linux".

Heretical as it may sound, I happen to believe that you can support
freedom in software and GNU without nitpicking over nomenclature.  I
have been calling the OS Linux since I first used it in 1992, and
shall continue to do so.  I have also been a strong believer in and
advocate of software freedom since I got my first GNU tape in 1988,
and I still see no compelling reasons to associate a name with a
concept.

Richard, I was (and, as would be obvious from the message you refer
to, still am) deeply influenced by your original writings on why
software should be free, the GNU Manifesto, etc.  They changed the way
I viewed software and, indirectly, the world.  However since you bring
it up repeatedly, I do believe that this insistence on the name of the
OS is creating large amounts of mindless militant-ism, which is doing
neither Linux nor the free software movement any good.

If the definition of being a true friend of the FSF is to `toe the
party line' wrt the name of the OS, then I am definitely not a friend
of the FSF.  On the other hand, if being a `true friend' of the FSF
means to write free software, to believe in free software, to promote
free software and to advocate free software then I am one.

You decide which definition is more valid.

Regards,

-- Raju
-- 
Raj Mathur                raju@kandalaya.org      http://kandalaya.org/
                      It is the mind that moves