rms@AI.MIT.EDU (Richard Stallman) (11/22/90)
My concern is that shutting out
some engineers from all _social_ intercourse because they happen to use
a particular vendor's products
This is not what we are doing.
The FSF is not boycotting any individuals--only certain activities.
Specifically, activities that cooperate with Apple itself or promote
sales of Apple computers. Regardless of how the word boycott
originated, our boycott doesn't involve rejecting social intercourse
in general with anyone.
For example, our refusal to help Apple do business would not apply if
a person who (coincidentally) works for Apple at other times asks for
help with unrelated personal activities. It's not the person who is
being boycotted--it is the activities of Apple.
A person who works for Apple is not necessarily a bad person. But
while the person is on the job, he or is she is working on a project
(the prosperity of Apple) that is injurious to the rest of us. We may
not have a reason to blame the individual for doing this, but even so,
there is no reason to go out of our way to help injure ourselves.
Answering a technical question is certainly going out of your way,
and you often see questions here in help-g++ that you don't answer.
Whether to answer depends on whether the question deserves an answer.
... may also damage FSF's reputation in this respect.
If misunderstandings damage our reputation, we can try to repair it by
explaining the truth.
Some people may disapprove of our real actions, as well, but the
reasons for them in this case are so compelling that we can't afford
to stop them.
The GNU project does not have a future if Apple wins, because much of
what we want to write would be illegal. How much use will our system
be if we can't have windows and a desktop?
If that happens, a good reputation won't help us at all.