Re: Proposal for an Emacs User Survey

[Richard Stallman]

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

  > I don't understand why a question in a survey would be seen as a
  > recommendation.

Simply mentioning MELPA encourages people to think we consider it
legitimate.  We do not!  And it defeats our goals if people think
that we do.

MELPA contains programs that depend on, that require installation of,
various nonfree programs.  Thus, it leads people to install those.
This encourages injustice -- the injustice of those nonfree programs.

Most Emacs users have probably never thought about this issue.  They
take for granted that nonfree programs are legitimate, they believe
everyone considers them legitimate, and they assume we do too.

It is important to educate these people that the GNU Project does not
agree with "everyone" on this.

Some Emacs users have though about this but were not convinced, and
then they probably dropped the question from their thoughts.  If we
treat MELPA as if it were as legitimate as the free archives, they
will be encouraged in considering it as legitimate as the free
archives.

Perhaps we should do something to show them what the issue is.
Perhaps with text like this:

======================================================================
GNU Emacs is part of the GNU operating system.  The GNU Project aims
to escape, then replace, all nonfree software with freedom-respecting
free software.

We maintain an Emacs package archive that consists of free packages
that can run in a free environment.  There is another Emacs package
archive called Melpa which distributes packages require the user to
install some nonfree programs.  That practice is harmful because it
encourages the installation of those nonfree programs, and that works
against our goal -- it prioritizes short-term convenience over
freedom.

Rather than prioritize short-term convenience over freedom, we
normally avoid mentioning that Malpa exists.

As a special exception, we mentioned it in a question in this survey,
to get data about its use.  That does not mean we have changed our
minds about our criticism of Melpa.
======================================================================

How about that?

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)