On Tue, Dec 02, 2014 at 09:52:12AM -0500, Richard Stallman wrote: > > In the Free Software world on the other hand, it is generally quite > > feasible simply to move elsewhere if you don't like some project's > > decisions -- so there is no need for you to have an obligatory say in > > any particular project. > Exactly. That is why we don't need a democratic structure in > the GNU Project.
I strongly disagree with this conclusion - certainly people can move away from the GNU project if they dislike decisions taken without any democratic consultation, and form a competing project elsewhere, and the free software produced by GNU will still be freely available. On the other hand, as a project, we might wish to reduce the likelihood of people moving away. And democratic structures should lead to more global satisfaction - it is easier to live with a decision that goes against my own opinions if it is shared by many people inside the project, than if it is just imposed from above. So software freedom might not need democratic structures to survive, but I believe that the GNU project does. Andreas
