I’m just quoting hereafter a Richard Stallman post on Gnome Foundation newsgroup. His words should make us think of what’s recently happening in Gnome Community (think of OOXML and MONO adoption thoughts, and to M. De Icaza policies). What a shame…

GNOME is based on a philosophy, but it is not just a philosophy.
It is a project to develop and maintain a desktop environment.

A technical project has to make specific technical decisions. It
can’t favor all the options that fit the philosophy; often it has to
choose an avenue and follow it. Whatever the choices, some might call
them “favoritism”, but that’s tough. Choosing can’t be avoided.

GNOME is a desktop environment, but it is not just a desktop
environment. It is also based on a philosophy of free software and
freedom. That philosophy sometimes yields specific ethical reasons
for making specific technical choices. To someone who thinks only in
terms of technology, these might seem like “favoritism”, but favoring
the ethical (or what leads to it) over the unethical is right and
proper.

The sort of favoritism that would be improper is to make a decision
for the sake of profit (rather than the success of GNOME and the
triumph of freedom).

Richard Stallman

Dec 03, 2007