> > When it comes to deciding the direction of a project like GCC - technical > > and otherwise - in my mind it primarily should be those actually involved > > and contributing. > > GNU follows the general principle of the Free Software movement, that > freedom for *users* is the priority. Assigning *higher* importance to > developers' preferences is *not* a position I share.
I think there's a difference between philosophy and practicality here. Sure, the importance of work done by different developers, measured on the scale of advancing the goals of the Free Software movement, is different for each. But what actually advances a project (which can be viewed as "deciding [its] direction") is what work developers choose to do, not the importance of each piece of work on that metric. So I certainly agree with what you said above, but don't think that changes the reality that it's ultimately what developers choose to work on that most affects the direction of a project.