From: Richard Stallman
Subject: Candidate Richard Stallman
Date: Thu, 8 Nov 2001 15:45:24 -0700 (MST)
I've been working for GNOME since years before there was a GNOME. In
1983, while formulating plans for the GNU operating system, I decided
it ought to include a window system. Later, around 1988, we obtained
X, but we found out that X only did the lower-level half of the job,
so I decided we needed to develop a free software desktop to do the
rest of the job. After our desktop initiatives in 1990 and 1994/5
didn't produce a working desktop (*), I became aware of another desktop
project based on a non-free library (**), and spoke to the community
about the problem posed by that dependency. This inspired Miguel to
launch our third desktop project, the one that succeeded: GNOME.
As president of the Free Software Foundation, I have had years of
experience working with contributors both individual and corporate.
If I am elected to the board of the GNOME Foundation, I will use the
position to improve coordination between GNOME and the rest of GNU--in
regard to technical decisions, public relations, and long-term goals.
(*) The second effort produced Guile instead of a desktop, because we
decided we wanted a Scheme package to customize the desktop with.
(**) That library, Qt, is free software today. This change is probably
partly the result of the energetic development of GNOME.
NewsForge
speculates that this is the result of pique over the recent
spat regarding mention of non-Free software in GNOME Summaries.