rms@canna.kr.UUCP (04/01/87)
If you think that you can get someone to buy the tapes, do the copy, package, and mail them for less, encourage them to do so. I'd much rather have the FSF writing free software than spending all their time playing tape duplication. By all means, redistribute GNU software if you find that useful, but if you are looking for a way to help the GNU project and enable the Free Software Foundation to write more free software, sparing us the distraction of tape duplication is the wrong way to do it. The Emacs tape distribution business doesn't take away from our resources; instead it gives the Foundation an income that we have used to hire one low-paid capable hacker. I hope we will soon have enough income to hire another. Ordering a tape from the Foundation is one way of getting a copy of GNU Emacs; it is also a way of helping the GNU project. If you would like to help in a way that takes less time and effort than writing some GNU software would take, this is a good method to consider.