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.