Essay RFC delayed.

[Eric S. Raymond]

Richard Stallman <rms at gnu.org>:
>     How do Open Source projects differ from the above?
>     In two very important ways.  Firstly, OSPs have no
>     time-bound.  That is, there is no deadline whereby
>     the next version of GNOME has to be delivered, "or
> 
> I agree entirely with your argument, but the words raise a background
> issue so important I have to make a correction.
> 
> GNOME is part of the GNU Project, and we are part of the Free Software
> movement, not the Open Source movement.  We and they do similar
> things, and we can work together in practice, but our philosophical
> reasons are as different as could be.
> 
> Could you kindly cite GNOME as an example of the Free Software
> movement, not one of the Open Source movement?  Please don't
> spread the idea that the latter one includes all of us.
> 
> See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html
> for more explanation of the difference between the two movements.

Richard, you should be careful what you wish for; you might get it.

In your zeal to distance your doctrinal purity from the OSI's filthy
but effective pragmatism, you are mainly succeeding in marginalizing
both the FSF and yourself.  If you keep this up, you're going to end
up ranting to an audience of one, in the mirror.

I would not view this as a happy outcome; you have given far too much
to our community, and have far too much more to give in the future.
Can't you learn to accept your victory and your allies more gracefully?
-- 
		<a href="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr">Eric S. Raymond</a>

In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to
liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses
in return for protection to his own.
	-- Thomas Jefferson, 1814