Richard Stallman praises GNOME developers

Richard Stallman has submitted the following E-Mail to several GNOME mailing lists:

Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1999 17:11:34 -0700 (MST)
From: Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
To: gnome-hackers@nuclecu.unam.mx, gnome-list@gnome.org
Subject: Congratulations on GNOME

On the occasion of the first official release of GNOME, I would like to congratulate and thank all the developers of GNOME for taking the GNU system to a new level.

The initial goal of the GNU Project was to make a free operating system that would be compatible with Unix. And that is what we got: the GNU/Linux operating system is as powerful as Unix, and as easy to learn as Unix. Which means, not easy enough ;-).

You are changing that. Free software should be good for all users, not just for hackers. With GNOME, it will be.

Ultimately GNOME should aim to surpass Windows; the goal should be to make the GNU system as natural as the Macintosh. That won't be easy; it will require careful attention to the coherence of the interface, and to how non-hacker users respond when the program is set before them. But if we keep the goal in mind, we will get there.

Thanks for the good work.