Re: Question of Aiding and Abetting Proprietary (or non-free) Software in GNU projects

[Alexandre Oliva]

Hello, Yasuaki,

On May 16, 2022, Yasuaki Kudo <yasu@yasuaki.com> wrote:

> The contradiction I see is that:

> * Emacs runs on Windows.  Instructions and reasons are stated clearly (as you 
> quoted) 

> * Guix OS technically runs on Linux (not just LibreLinux).  However,
> it is not "advertised" (the verb seemingly preferred by the community)
> and even the discussion thereof is shunned.

> So I am still left wondering 😅

I don't think the situations are similar.

Say you have MS-Windows installed on your computer, and you wish to run
GNU Emacs.  You can install GNU Emacs built for MS-Windows, and it will
work.  I doubt you'd install MS-Windows just so that you could run GNU
Emacs on your computer.  For this reason alone, you'd be better off
installing GNU/Linux rather than MS-Windows.  So it's not like GNU
Emacs would induce you to install a proprietary operating system even if
it explicitly mentions support for it.

Contrast that with a scenario in which you wish to run Guix OS.  Whether
you already have the non-Free kernel Linux installed on that computer is
irrelevant: Guix OS's installer will install a kernel afresh.  If you
configure it to install a non-Free kernel, that's non-Free Software
you're installing on your computer.  If Guix OS's documentation were to
tell you about this possibility, and tell you how to do it, it would be
effectively encouraging and inducing you and countless other users to
install non-Free Software that was not present on their computers
before, and that would be getting installed because of the wish to run
Guix OS on those computers.

-- 
Alexandre Oliva, happy hacker                https://FSFLA.org/blogs/lxo/
   Free Software Activist                       GNU Toolchain Engineer
Disinformation flourishes because many people care deeply about injustice
but very few check the facts.  Ask me about <https://stallmansupport.org>