Hello all,
attached is a new proposal; I am not using org-mode and I am not a native
speaker, so bear with me for any mistakes.
On Fri, Nov 01, 2019 at 12:04:13PM +0100, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> > "The purpose of the GNU project is to provide an entirely free operating
> > system."
>
> To better match reality, I would write: “… to provide an entirely free
> operating system and free applications.”
> Or: “… is to contribute to an entirely free operating system and to
> develop applications.”
> Regarding “free” and the fact that it’s not defined yet, I would
> actually rather write: “… is to develop an operating system and
> applications that respect user freedom.”
These are good points. I wrote "that respect users' freedom" everywhere,
and spoke a bit more vaguely of "systems", as well as dropped all references
to computers. Given that the document is aimed to be valid longterm, there
should indeed be some opening for future projects. For instance, providing
a free system for smartphones might be the next big project; this seems to
be the area where currently we experience the biggest restrictions of our
daily life when we want to limit ourselves to free software. And while this
is, strictly speaking, covered by "operating systems for computers", I
wanted to avoid to sound too specific like "GNU/Linux for 'traditional'
computers". Also, there is the topic of free hardware. Why this does not
seem to be something that we can tackle currently, it might be an option
and entirely reasonable in a few years from now. And I would argue it can be
within our mission statement (also given that the boundary between soft- and
hardware becomes quite blurry).
Then, as discussed, I merged the points 1, 2 and 4.
Unlike discussed so far, I rewrote parts in my personal style:
- I replaced most occurrences of "the GNU Project" by "we", to emphasise
that this is indeed a commitment by us towards our users.
- As I like snappy text, I shortened things quite a bit and occasionally
left out the rationale for a paragraph.
Everything is of course up for debate, amendments, reversals, in short:
improvement.
Andreas
Proposal of a “GNU Social Contract”
This document states the core commitments of the GNU Project to the
broader free software community. All current GNU Project members
have agreed to uphold these values.
The purpose of the GNU Project is to provide software and systems that
respect users' freedoms.
* GNU respects users' freedoms
We provide software that guarantees to users the four essential freedoms,
without compromise:
0. The freedom to run the program as they wish, for any purpose.
1. The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does
their computing as they wish.
Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
2. The freedom to redistribute copies so they can help others.
3. The freedom to distribute copies of their modified versions to others.
By doing this they can give the whole community a chance to benefit
from their changes.
Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
All software written by us is distributed under copyleft licenses, designed
to ensure that developers cannot strip off users' freedom from GNU software.
Besides upholding the four essential freedoms, we pay attention and respond
to new threats to users' freedom as they arise, such as services as a
software substitute (SaaSS), use of non-free scripts on web pages, mass
surveillance, digital restrictions management (DRM), etc.
* GNU provides consistent systems
We develop an operating system and a set of applications, in the form of
GNU packages. GNU package developers work together to ensure consistency
across packages. GNU packages follow the design and development guidelines
of the GNU Project.
* GNU collaborates with the broader free software community
Free software has extended beyond the GNU Project, and we work with
companion free software projects that develop key components of our system.
We aim to extend the reach of free software to new fields.
* GNU welcomes contributions from all and everyone
We want to give everyone the opportunity to contribute to our efforts
on any of the many tasks that require work. We welcome all contributors,
regardless of their gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, level of
experience, or any other personal characteristics. We commit to providing
a harassment-free experience for all our contributors.
