FSF leadership

[David Cahalane]

KDE would be the first organization not directly linked to FSF to issue a public statement on this. It would also come over a week after RMS' statements gained media attention, and several days after his resignation.

If we wanted to voice our desire for a more open FOSS community, we should have done it before RMS resigned. OpenSUSE did exactly that, issuing a statement on Sept.14 simply arguing that free software must be free of abuse. No mention of Stallman, the FSF, or MIT.

Making a statement similar to Red Hat's would be seen by the FSF as an unwelcome intrusion into an internal discussion. A statement simply supporting the FSF could be misconstrued as mourning the loss of RMS.

The worst thing we could do is draw attention to what was said at Akademy 2009. If we didn't take enough action then, that is our failure. Ten years later, associating ourselves with those remarks can only cause undue harm to KDE.

I'm glad to see RMS go, and I sincerely hope FSF can change into a more inclusive and more effective organization. I know many in KDE feel the same. But it's not our place to put additional pressure on the FSF at this time. They already took a big step forward by getting rid of RMS, even though it may have been personally difficult for many of them.

>From a communications standpoint, the time for our comment has long since passed.


Sep 19, 2019, 04:08 by jens at ohyran.se:

> I disagree with a lot of the ideological/sociological statements in
> your comment, but will focus on the core point:
>
> What we're suggesting is chosing someone that is objectively BETTER for
> the FSF. The post isn't only technical in nature, but instead one of
> community leadership, communication and philosophical guidance. 
>
> With that in mind looking for the leader to better represent the FSF,
> grow the Free Software movement, and improve its standing - makes the
> choice for diversification a clear and simple one
> (and that is ignoring the other arguments for those of us who do not
> share your specific ideological/sociological beliefs)
>
> /Jens
>
>
> tor 2019-09-19 klockan 09:54 +0200 skrev Sven Brauch:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> On Thursday, 19 September 2019 04:59:09 CEST Valorie Zimmerman wrote:
>> > Accordingly, I would like us (the KDE Community) to advise them to
>> > diversify their Board, as RedHat has done here:
>>
>> I am against diversifying for diversifying's sake. It's something
>> that is 
>> already way too prevalent in today's society.
>>
>
>
>
>> Let's please pick the best 
>> person for the job, regardless of race, gender, or whatever, and
>> let's 
>> especially *not* write letters to others recommending them to do
>> otherwise.
>>
>> Picking people with the argument of diversity achieves the exact
>> opposite of 
>> what you want: it leads to people which are *worse* at their job than
>> the 
>> competitors being selected for it. Thus doing this systematically
>> gives an 
>> actual, real reason for prejudice against "people with $property in 
>> $position".
>>
>> Greetings,
>> Sven
>>

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