[Fsatom-comm] Re: Proposal of "Basic text"

[Konrad Hinsen]

> Here is a first version of the "Basic text"
> of the FS Atom association.It is formatted as simple text.
> Any critics, comment, suggestion, addition, is welcome !

See below... I am also using this opportunity to test our new
mailing list, if all goes well, everyone should receive two copies
of this mail.

> The advent of rapid means of exchange of software, has helped 
> the spread of so-called ``Free Software'' (free for freedom, not price), 
> generally distributed under the GNU licensing scheme.

I am not sure that "generally" is true, there are popular "more open"
licensing schemes (e.g. BSD) as well. I also think that the
term "OpenSource" should be mentioned.

BTW, on the EuroPython conference I learned a bit more about the "Free
Software" vs. "OpenSource" debate. We had Eric Raymond there, the
inventor of the term OpenSource, who explained why it's better than
"Free Software". Others then told me that the origin of discussion is
simply that Richard Stallman (founder of the FSF) and Eric Raymond
can't stand each other and each want to become the definitive
authority on free/open software issues. I think we should stay out
of this as much as possible.

> 2) The purpose of the FSAtom association

We are not an association in the legal sense. In fact, we aren't
anything in a legal sense at the moment. I propose a more neutral
term (perhaps "project") to avoid misunderstandings.

All the rest looks fine to me.

Konrad.
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