wingologA mostly dorky weblog by Andy Wingo2021-03-25T12:22:14Ztekutihttps://wingolog.org/feed/atomAndy Wingohttps://wingolog.org/here we go againhttps://wingolog.org/2021/03/25/here-we-go-again2021-03-25T12:22:14Z2021-03-25T12:22:14Z

Around 18 months ago, Richard Stallman was forced to resign from the Free Software Foundation board of directors and as president. It could have been anything -- at that point he already had a history of behaving in a way that was particularly alienating to women -- but in the end it was his insinuation that it was somehow OK if his recently-deceased mentor Marvin Minsky, then in his 70s or 80s, had sex with a 17-year-old on Jeffrey Epstein's private island. A weird pick of hill to stake one's reputation on, to say the least.

At the time I was relieved that we would finally be getting some leadership renewal at the FSF, and hopeful that we could get some mission renewal as well. I was also looking forward to the practical implications would be for the GNU project, as more people agreed that GNU was about software freedom and not about its founder.

But now we're back! Not only has RMS continued through this whole time to insist that he runs the GNU project -- something that is simply not the case, in my estimation -- but this week, a majority of a small self-selected group of people, essentially a subset of current and former members of the FSF board of directors and including RMS himself, elected to reinstate RMS to the board of the Free Software Foundation. Um... read the room, FSF voting members? What kind of message are you sending?

In this context I can only agree with the calls for the entire FSF board to resign. The board is clearly not fit for purpose, if it can make choices like this.

dissociation?

I haven't (yet?) signed the open letter because I would be in an inconsistent position if I did so. The letter enjoins people to "refuse to contribute to projects related to the FSF and RMS"; as a co-maintainer of GNU Guile, which has its origins in the heady 1990s of the FSF but has nothing to do any more with RMS, but whose copyrights are entirely held by the FSF, is hosted on FSF-run servers, and is even obliged (GPLv3 §5d, as referenced by LGPLv3) to print out Copyright (C) 1995-2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc. when it starts, I must admit that I contribute to a project that is "related to the FSF". But I don't see how Guile could continue this association, if the FSF board continues as it is. It's bad for contributors and for the future of the project.

It would be very tricky to disentangle Guile from the FSF -- consider hosting, for example -- so it's not the work of a day, but it's something to think about.

Of course I would rather that the FSF wouldn't allow itself to be seen as an essentially misogynist organization. So clean house, FSF!

on the nature of fire

Reflecting on how specifically we could have gotten here -- I don't know. I don't know the set of voting members at the FSF, what discussions were made, who voted what. But, having worked as a volunteer on GNU projects for almost two decades now, I have a guess. RMS and his closest supporters see themselves as guardians of the flame of free software -- a lost world of the late 70s MIT AI lab, reborn in a flurry of mid-80s hack, but since 25 years or so, slipping further and further away. These are dark times, in their view, and having the principled founder in a leadership role can only be a good thing.

(Of course, the environment in the AI lab was only good for some. The treatment of Margaret Hamilton as recounted in Levy's Hackers shows that not all were welcome. If this were just one story, I would discount it, but looking back, it does seem to be part of a pattern.)

But is that what the FSF is for today? If so, Guile should certainly leave. I'm not here for software as perfomative nostalgia -- I'm here to have fun with friends and start a fire. The FSF should look to do the same -- look at the world we are in, look where the energy is now, and engage in real conversations about success and failure and tactics. There is a world to win and doubling down on RMS won't get us there from here.

Andy Wingohttps://wingolog.org/thoughts on rms and gnuhttps://wingolog.org/2019/10/08/thoughts-on-rms-and-gnu2019-10-08T15:34:06Z2019-10-08T15:34:06Z

Yesterday, a collective of GNU maintainers publicly posted a statement advocating collective decision-making in the GNU project. I would like to expand on what that statement means to me and why I signed on.

For many years now, I have not considered Richard Stallman (RMS) to be the head of the GNU project. Yes, he created GNU, speaking it into existence via prophetic narrative and via code; yes, he inspired many people, myself included, to make the vision of a GNU system into a reality; and yes, he should be recognized for these things. But accomplishing difficult and important tasks for GNU in the past does not grant RMS perpetual sovereignty over GNU in the future.

ontological considerations

More on the motivations for the non serviam in a minute. But first, a meta-point: the GNU project does not exist, at least not in the sense that many people think it does. It is not a legal entity. It is not a charity. You cannot give money to the GNU project. Besides the manifesto, GNU has no by-laws or constitution or founding document.

One could describe GNU as a set of software packages that have been designated by RMS as forming part, in some way, of GNU. But this artifact-centered description does not capture movement: software does not, by itself, change the world; it lacks agency. It is the people that maintain, grow, adapt, and build the software that are the heart of the GNU project -- the maintainers of and contributors to the GNU packages. They are the GNU of whom I speak and of whom I form a part.

wasted youth

Richard Stallman describes himself as the leader of the GNU project -- the "chief GNUisance", he calls it -- but this position only exists in any real sense by consent of the people that make GNU. So what is he doing with this role? Does he deserve it? Should we consent?

To me it has been clear for many years that to a first approximation, the answer is that RMS does nothing for GNU. RMS does not write software. He does not design software, or systems. He does hold a role of accepting new projects into GNU; there, his primary criteria is not "does this make a better GNU system"; it is, rather, "does the new project meet the minimum requirements".

By itself, this seems to me to be a failure of leadership for a software project like GNU. But unfortunately when RMS's role in GNU isn't neglect, more often as not it's negative. RMS's interventions are generally conservative -- to assert authority over the workings of the GNU project, to preserve ways of operating that he sees as important. See for example the whole glibc abortion joke debacle as an example of how RMS acts, when he chooses to do so.

Which, fair enough, right? I can hear you saying it. RMS started GNU so RMS decides what it is and what it can be. But I don't accept that. GNU is about practical software freedom, not about RMS. GNU has long outgrown any individual contributor. I don't think RMS has the legitimacy to tell this group of largely volunteers what we should build or how we should organize ourselves. Or rather, he can say what he thinks, but he has no dominion over GNU; he does not have majority sweat equity in the project. If RMS actually wants the project to outlive him -- something that by his actions is not clear -- the best thing that he could do for GNU is to stop pretending to run things, to instead declare victory and retire to an emeritus role.

Note, however, that my personal perspective here is not a consensus position of the GNU project. There are many (most?) GNU developers that still consider RMS to be GNU's rightful leader. I think they are mistaken, but I do not repudiate them for this reason; we can work together while differing on this and other matters. I simply state that I, personally, do not serve RMS.

selective attrition

Though the "voluntary servitude" questions are at the heart of the recent joint statement, I think we all recognize that attempts at self-organization in GNU face a grave difficulty, even if RMS decided to retire tomorrow, in the way that GNU maintainers have selected themselves.

The great tragedy of RMS's tenure in the supposedly universalist FSF and GNU projects is that he behaves in a way that is particularly alienating to women. It doesn't take a genius to conclude that if you're personally driving away potential collaborators, that's a bad thing for the organization, and actively harmful to the organization's goals: software freedom is a cause that is explicitly for everyone.

We already know that software development in people's free time skews towards privilege: not everyone has the ability to devote many hours per week to what is for many people a hobby, and it follows of course that those that have more privilege in society will be more able to establish a position in the movement. And then on top of these limitations on contributors coming in, we additionally have this negative effect of a toxic culture pushing people out.

The result, sadly, is that a significant proportion of those that have stuck with GNU don't see any problems with RMS. The cause of software freedom has always run against the grain of capitalism so GNU people are used to being a bit contrarian, but it has also had the unfortunate effect of creating a cult of personality and a with-us-or-against-us mentality. For some, only a traitor would criticise the GNU project. It's laughable but it's a thing; I prefer to ignore these perspectives.

Finally, it must be said that there are a few GNU people for whom it's important to check if the microphone is on before making a joke about rape culture. (Incidentally, RMS had nothing to say on that issue; how useless.)

So I honestly am not sure if GNU as a whole effectively has the demos to make good decisions. Neglect and selective attrition have gravely weakened the project. But I stand by the principles and practice of software freedom, and by my fellow GNU maintainers who are unwilling to accept the status quo, and I consider attempts to reduce GNU to founder-loyalty to be mistaken and without legitimacy.

where we're at

Given this divided state regarding RMS, the only conclusion I can make is that for the foreseeable future, GNU is not likely to have a formal leadership. There will be affinity groups working in different ways. It's not ideal, but the differences are real and cannot be papered over. Perhaps in the medium term, GNU maintainers can reach enough consensus to establish a formal collective decision-making process; here's hoping.

In the meantime, as always, happy hacking, and: no gods! No masters! No chief!!!

Andy Wingohttps://wingolog.org/gnu, gnome, and the fsfhttps://wingolog.org/2009/12/13/gnu-gnome-and-the-fsf2009-12-13T21:33:44Z2009-12-13T21:33:44Z

I have been meaning to write this article for a couple weeks now, ever since the recent GNU Hackers Meeting over in Göteborg. I'd rather be hacking tonight, but some other circumstances make such a report a bit more timely; so, here goes!

GHM

I arrived a little late, having missed the first day's talks. I was particularly irked to have missed Bruno Haible's talk on modularity and extensibility, but I understand that there will be some video up soon.

I didn't know enough at that time to miss having seen José Marchesi's talk, but now that I know the fellow, it is a shame indeed. Actually that was one of my biggest take-aways from that event: that I never really knew GNU as a community of maintainers. GNU in 2009 is not the kind of organization that flies people all over to meet each other, and it's to our loss. I hope to see much more of GNU hackers in the future.

So everyone that goes to conferences knows why they are great: the hallway track. Or the bar track, as it might be. So what were the topics?

GNU is not FSF

This point really surprised me: that GNU is not the Free Software Foundation. There a relationship, but they are not the same thing, not by a long shot.

So here's the deal. In the beginning, there was GNU. But Richard realized that in the world of 1985, with proprietary software on all sides, it would be easier to defend the small but growing software commons if hackers collaborated by assigning their copyright to one U.S.-based organization. The FSF was set up as the legal entity associated with GNU, with RMS at its head.

25 years later it's still like that. The copyright assignment paperwork that every GNU contributor signs has some clauses that obligate the FSF to keep their conributions free (in the Free Software sense), but ultimately trust in the FSF is a trust in RMS, and in his principles. It is a testament to RMS's character that there are 35000 lines in fencepost.gnu.org:/gd/gnuorg/copyright.list, representing at least 5000 contributors.

But what's up now? As free software became more and more successful, it became clear that there were other ways to get involved than just writing code. There's all kinds of advocacy work that needs doing, for example. The FSF was a natural concentration point for these efforts.

However, also inevitably, with the influx of people, the composition of the FSF changed. There are very few hackers in the FSF now. There is RMS of course, whose work these days doesn't involve programming, but that's about it. Recently Mako was added, which is an important step to redressing that situation, and more on that later.

I mean, look at www.gnu.org and www.fsf.org. See the difference?

So the advocacy and campaigning is with the FSF, and the hackers are with GNU. I think every GNU hacker is really down with the message of freedom; I mean, we are the ones hacking the hack. But, as a majority, the GNU hackers are not down with "Windows 7 Sins" or "Bad Vista" or most of these negative campaigns the FSF has been running recently.

I say this as a GNU maintainer, not as a representative of GNU, but I believe I have the facts right.

GNU and RMS

All GNU hackers respect RMS. We respect his ethical principles, his vision, his tenacity, and his hack. I mean, GNU Emacs: this, for most of us, is the best software in existence. The early days of GCC. Texinfo. Really remarkable contributions, these, without which the world would be a poorer place.

(If you disagree, that's cool; but I'm just trying to explain where we come from. I guess also I should clarify what I mean by GNU here. I mean, "people who have signed paperwork to assign copyright to the FSF". I know that mentioning the FSF there is a bit ironic, but it's a strict definition.)

But nowadays, while RMS's principles remain strong (thankfully), he's a bit absent, technically. That would be OK -- he has certainly put in his hack-time -- but that the GNU project doesn't really have a means to make technical decisions on its own right now. Each maintainer can mostly make decisions about their modules, and we can talk to each other (mostly via gnu-prog-discuss), but there is no governance structure for the GNU project itself.

Worse, sometimes RMS decides things without any input at all, when such input really is needed. The decision to bless Bazaar as the official GNU version control system, for example, really sits poorly with a lot of people. The adoption of SCM and MIT Scheme as two additional Schemes in the GNU project also are real WTF decisions.

These "blessings" don't have much of an effect on people's behavior -- most active GNU modules use git, for example -- but they make people lose faith in GNU's technical coherence.

The issue here is that the GNU project is a community of people working for software freedom, yes, but we have some specific values binding us together. One, the ethical principles of supporting user freedom; more on that later. Secondly, there is a technical vision of a "GNU project" as a cohesive, well-thought-out, integrated technical whole. One can now argue about the extent to which that is currently true, but it is a very important value to GNU hackers.

Things were more or less fine when there was more of UNIX that needed to be reimplemented, and when RMS himself was more on the ball. But now there is a significant measure of dissatisfaction within GNU itself about the way decisions are made. There are some steps being taken to fix this (a recently created GNU advisory board, for example), but it is ironic that some decisions in GNU really do come from one man.

At the same time there is actually a widespread concern within GNU about what would happen if decision making were to be made more open. No one wants outsiders making decisions, it would still have to be maintainers; but there is concern that things might get out of hand, that there might be too many pointless discussions, that bad decisions could be made, that there would be a tyranny of the talkers, etc. This is why things are changing really slowly. Everyone wants more autonomy, but they don't want to lose the solidarity.

GNU and GNOME

So what's the deal with GNU and GNOME? Everything, and nothing. Allow me to explain.

GNU people see GNOME as an "outside" thing at this point. To most GNU hackers, GNOME is not quite GNU. GNOME doesn't follow GNU's coding standards (recall the point about technical integrations), assigns no copyright to the FSF, and seems to prefer LGPLv2+ and not GPLv3+. There is hardly any communication between GNOME people and GNU people. In GNOME, people look at problems their systems are having, and decide to solve them within GNOME -- PolicyKit, for example.

(I don't want to pick on David's excellent software; but I'm equally sure that it never crossed David's mind to suggest PolicyKit for inclusion into the GNU project. There are many similar examples.)

Hell, many GNU people even use things like Sawfish or Xmonad or StumpWM or other such things. Admittedly, GNU folks would be more likely to install GNOME on their cousin's computer; but as for themselves, Emacs is the only program many people need.

GNOME people on the other hand are in two camps, more or less. Broadly speaking these camps correspond to Free Software and to Open Source, respectively. The former feel a strong heart-tie with the GNU project; perhaps they started working on GNOME back when it really was a GNU project, or perhaps they started with it because they believed in GNU's ethical principles and chose that environment because they wanted to spread user freedom to their friends. As I say, most GNOME people are disconnected from GNU per se, so this tie really is more cultural than practical, but it is there, and it is strong in its own way.

The Open Source people tend to value GNOME in particular from the days when Qt was GPL-only, or even proprietary, and GNOME allowed them to develop open source applications as well as proprietary ones. Open Source people appreciate the technical comraderie, as well as the technical excellence of the platform, but often disagree with the GNU project's copyleft principles, instead appealing to individual choice as to whether to use or make proprietary software or not.

I hope I haven't been uncharitable to anyone here. Please correct me in the comments if so.

is GNOME GNU?

So, Andre posts, wondering about the relationship between GNU and GNOME. I hope I have been able to add some broader context to the question.

I think that Andre's characterization of RMS as "fascistic" is totally wrong. There are serious problems of decision-making within the GNU project, yes, but "fascistic" takes it a bit too far, and almost brushes Godwin's Law ;)

The particular context in which the discussion has been brought up, that nasty thread on foundation-list, is unlikely to bring about any mutual understanding. It is ironic that the topic is the code of conduct, which was designed to promote understanding.

Bottom line, GNOME can be GNU if it wants to. But I don't think a decision is necessary right now, and certainly not on foundation-list, not in that thread of the talkers.

GHM redux

I promised to talk more about hallway tracks at the GHM, but I've run out of semicolons. Until next time!