Re: giving money to gnome
Benedikt Eric Heinen <beh@icemark.ch> writes:
> Of course the Debian adds on an extra value, but primarily this CD is a
> KDE CD and not a Debian (which can easily be observed by the fact, that
> the KDE is supplied in multiple formats: tar.gz, rpm, deb).
What difference does this make?
> This CD just had enough space to throw a Debian on there as well, as an
> added bonus to the customer.
It is irrelevant.
> The question is - would there be a JFL Debian CD at all, if JFL wouldn't
> have made this KDE CD?
Also irrelevant.
> I don't say, that there is such a clause. Except for maybe "The Rules Of
> Friendly Conduct".
We are not supporting a competing bookstare. We are getting money
from a bookstore. Where's the "unfriendly" conduct? What is keeping
the bookstore from putting GNOME on future CDs as another added bonus?
> If GNOME were the *ONLY* free software project we could fund, then there
> wouldn't be much choice. But - is this so? I don't think so.
It seems to be pretty darn beneficial to support GNOME right now. Not
only for us but for the free software community as a whole.
> In that case, give the money to another free software project.
Why not give to gnome?
> Besides - what *REALLY* gets on my nerves, is the fact that the
> pseudo-reason behind supporting GNOME is, that this will support GTK. Why
> can't the money be given to GTK people *DIRECTLY*?
Gtk is pretty well finished. Gnome is not. Why should we give money
to gtk?
> > Why? Why can't we spend the money where we want to?
>
> <Letting off a little steam>
>
> Sometimes I think it's a pity that some people haven't had
> a good Western-European style education. Because in that case
> you'd certainly heard the words "ethics", "morals", "piety",
> "honesty" and "honor". And you'd know what they mean!
>
> Just a hint: These aren't things you can eat!
> Are you just to blind to see the reason not to support GNOME with *THIS*
> money? Or is it just blissful ignorance?
I could see a *possible* unethical thing if we were to give the money
to a competing bookstore. However, consider this:
* It would be, at minimum, unethical for us to let others tell us
how to spend our money, ESPECIALLY if we are planning to support
free software!
(You wouldn't want contributions to a politician's campaign to
change national policy, would you?)
* We are not supporting a JFL competitor in any way. If they want
to include gnome in the future, they would be quite welcome to do
so.
> > You are sending a clear message to the world that Debian can be bought.
>
> Why does that mean, we can be bought? It doesn't mean *ANYTHING* along
> that line! But - maybe - just maybe - you could follow this logic:
>
> If someone gives you money and you use that money to piss him off,
> he won't give you any money in the future, unless he has no other
> choice whatsoever!
Who said that JFL is "pissed off"? (your words, not mine)
Why would JFL be annoyed at us doing something that could benefit them
in the future?
> Does that strike you as somewhat logical (even if just minimally
> logical)?
I don't see why you assume we have annoyed JFL in the first place.
> If not, would you be upset, if you gave me a good portion of money
> (no strings attached) and I'd use that to publicly humiliate you?
How have we publicly humiliated JFL??? We have done no such thing!
We are using their generous donation to further development for a free
desktop for our OS. JFL can only benefit from this move.
--
John Goerzen | Developing for Debian GNU/Linux (www.debian.org)
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