view etc/LINUX-GNU @ 92870:8f17f65dd575

* textmodes/org.el (org-ctrl-c-star): Implement a missing branch in the decision tree. (org-select-remember-template): Cleaned the code. (org-prepare-dblock): Added the extra :content parameter. (org-write-agenda): New output type ".ics" files. (org-write-agenda): Call `org-icalendar-verify-function', both for time stamps and for TODO entries. (org-agenda-collect-markers, org-create-marker-find-array) (org-check-agenda-marker-table): New functions. (org-agenda-marker-table): New variable. (org-export-as-html): Revert the change that killed the html buffer. Side effects first need to be studied carefully. (org-get-tags-at): Fix the structure of the condition-case statement. (org-ts-regexp0, org-repeat-re, org-display-custom-time) (org-timestamp-change): Fix regulear expressions to swallow the extra character for repeat-shift control. (org-auto-repeat-maybe): Implement the new repeater mechanisms. (org-get-legal-level): Aliased to `org-get-valid-level'. (org-dblock-write:clocktable): Added a :link parameter, linking headlines to their location in the Org agenda files. (org-get-tags-at): Bugfix: prevent `org-back-to-heading' from throwing an error when getting tags before headlines. (org-timestamp-change, org-modify-ts-extra) (org-ts-regexp1): Fix timestamp editing. (org-agenda-custom-commands-local-options): New constant. (org-agenda-custom-commands): Use `org-agenda-custom-commands-local-options' to improve customize type. "htmlize": Removed hack to fix face problem with htmlize, it no longer seem necessary. (org-follow-link-hook): New hook. (org-agenda-custom-commands): Added "Component" as a tag for each item in a command serie. (org-open-at-point): Run `org-follow-link-hook'. (org-agenda-schedule): Bugfix: don't display marker type when it is `nil'. (org-store-link): org-irc required. (org-set-regexps-and-options): Parse the new logging options. (org-extract-log-state-settings): New function. (org-todo): Handle the new ways of recording state change stuff. (org-local-logging): New function. (org-columns-open-link): Fixed bug with opening link in column view. (org-local-logging): New function (org-todo): Make sure that LOGGING properties are honoured. (org-todo-keywords): Improve docstring. (org-startup-options): Cleanup startup options. (org-set-regexps-and-options): Process the "!" markers. (org-todo): Respect the new logging stuff. (org-log-note-how): New variable. (org-add-log-maybe): New parameter HOW that defines how logging should be done and also overrides PURPOSE. Add a docstring. (org-add-log-note): Check if we really need to ask for a note. (org-get-current-options): Digest the new keyword. (org-agenda-reset-markers): Renamed from `org-agenda-maybe-reset-markers'. FORCE argument removed. (org-diary, org-agenda-quit, org-prepare-agenda): Call the renamed function, without force argument. (org-buffer-property-keys): Bind local variables s and p. (org-make-tags-matcher): Allow "" to match an empty or non-existent property value. (org-export-as-html): Join unsorted lists when they directly follow each other. Such lists may be created by headlines that are converted to lists. (org-nofm-to-completion): New function. (org-export-as-html): Use :html-extension instead of org-export-html-extension. (org-store-link): Support for links from `rmail-summary-mode'. (org-columns-new, org-complete, org-set-property): Set the `include-columns' argument in the call to `org-buffer-property-keys'. (org-buffer-property-keys): New argument `include-columns', to include properties expected by any of the COLUMS formats in the current buffer. (org-cleaned-string-for-export): Get rid of drawers first, so that they will be removed also in the text before the first headline. (org-clock-report): Show the clocktable when found. (org-refile): Fix positioning bug when `org-reverse-note-order' is nil. (org-version): With prefix argument, insert `org-version' at point. (org-agenda-goto): Recenter the window after finding the target location, to make sure the correct position will be displayed. (org-agenda-get-deadlines): Don't scale priority with the warning period. (org-insert-heading): Don't break line in the middle of the line. (org-agenda-get-deadlines): Allow `org-deadline-warning-days' to be 0. (org-update-checkbox-count): Revamped to deal with hierarchical beckboxes. This was a patch from Miguel A. Figueroa-Villanueva. (org-remove-timestamp-with-keyword): New function. (org-schedule, org-deadline): Use `org-remove-timestamp-with-keyword' to make sure all such time stamps are removed. (org-mode): Support for `align'. (org-agenda-get-deadlines): Make sure priorities increase as the due date approaches and is passed. (org-remember-apply-template): Fixed problem with tags that contain "_" or "@". (org-make-link-regexps): Improve the regular expression for plain links. (org-agenda-get-closed): List each clocking entry. (org-set-tags): Only tabify before tags if indent-tabs-mode is t. (org-special-ctrl-k): New option. (org-kill-line): New function. (org-archive-all-done): Fixed incorrect number of stars in regexp. (org-refile-get-location): New function. (org-refile-goto-last-stored): New function. (org-global-tags-completion-table): Add the value of org-tag-alist in each buffer, to make sure that also unused tags will be available for completion. (org-columns-edit-value) (org-columns-next-allowed-value): Only update if not in agenda. (org-clocktable-steps): New function. (org-dblock-write:clocktable): Call `org-clocktable-steps'. (org-archive-subtree): Add the outline tree context as a property. (org-closest-date): New optional argument `prefer'. (org-goto-auto-isearch): New option. (org-goto-map, org-get-location): Implement auto-isearch. (org-goto-local-auto-isearch-map): New variable. (org-goto-local-search-forward-headings) (org-goto-local-auto-isearch): New functions

		     Linux and the GNU system

The GNU project started in 1984 with the goal of developing a complete
free Unix-like operating system: GNU.  "Free" refers to freedom, not
price; it means you are free to run, copy, distribute, study, change,
and improve the software.

A Unix-like system consists of many different programs.  We found some
components already available as free software--for example, X Windows
and TeX.  We obtained other components by helping to convince their
developers to make them free--for example, the Berkeley network
utilities.  This left many missing components that we had to write in
order to produce GNU--for example, GNU Emacs, the GNU C compiler, the
GNU C library, Bash, and Ghostscript.  The GNU system consists of all
these components together.

The GNU project is not just about developing and distributing some
useful free software.  The heart of the GNU project is an idea: that
software should be free, that software users should have freedom to
participate in a community.  To run your computer, you need an
operating system; if it is not free, your freedom has been denied.  To
have freedom, you need a free operating system.  We therefore set out
to write one.

In the long run, though, we cannot expect to keep the free operating
system free unless the users are aware of the freedom it gives them,
and value that freedom.  People who do not appreciate their freedom
will not keep it long.  If we want to make freedom last, we need to
spread awareness of the freedoms they have in free software.

The GNU project's method is that free software and the idea of users'
freedom support each other.  We develop GNU software, and as people
encounter GNU programs or the GNU system and start to use them, they
also think about the GNU idea.  The software shows that the idea can
work in practice.  Some of these people come to agree with the idea,
and then they are more likely to write additional free software.
Thus, the software embodies the idea, spreads the idea, and grows from
the idea.

Early on in the development of GNU, various parts of it became popular
even though users needed proprietary systems to run them on.  Porting
the system to many systems and maintaining them required a lot of
work.  After that work, most GNU software is easily configured for a
variety of different platforms.

By 1991, we had found or written all of the essential major components
of the system except the kernel, which we were writing.  (This kernel
consists of the Mach microkernel plus the GNU HURD.  The first test
release was made in 1996.  Now, in 2002, it is running well, and
Hurd-based GNU systems are starting to be used.)

That was the situation when Linux came into being.  Linux is a kernel,
like the kernel of Unix; it was written by Linus Torvalds, who
released it under the GNU General Public License.  He did not write
this kernel for GNU, but it fit into the gap in GNU.  The combination
of GNU and Linux included all the major essential components of a
Unix-compatible operating system.  Other people, with some work made
the combination into a usable system.  The principal use of Linux, the
kernel, is as part of this combination.

The popularity of the GNU/Linux combination is success, in the sense
of popularity, for GNU.  Ironically, the popularity of GNU/Linux
undermines our method of communicating the ideas of GNU to people who
use GNU.

When GNU programs were only usable individually on top of another
operating system, installing and using them meant knowing and
appreciating these programs, and thus being aware of GNU, which led
people to think about the philosophical base of GNU.  Now users can
install a unified operating system which is basically GNU, but they
usually think these are "Linux systems".  At first impression, a
"Linux system" sounds like something completely distinct from the "GNU
system," and that is what most users think.

This leads many users to identify themselves as a separate community
of "Linux users", distinct from the GNU user community.  They use more
than just some GNU programs, they use almost all of the GNU system,
but they don't think of themselves as GNU users.  Often they never
hear about the GNU idea; if they do, they may not think it relates to
them.

Most introductions to the "Linux system" acknowledge that GNU software
components play a role in it, but they don't say that the system as a
whole is a modified version of the GNU system that the GNU project has
been developing and compiling since Linus Torvalds was in junior high
school.  They don't say that the main reason this free operating
exists is that the GNU Project worked persistently to achieve its goal
of freedom.

As a result, most users don't know these things.  They believe that
the "Linux system" was developed by Linus Torvalds "just for fun", and
that their freedom is a matter of good fortune rather than the
dedicated pursuit of freedom.  This creates a danger that they will
leave the survival of free software to fortune as well.

Since human beings tend to correct their first impressions less than
called for by additional information they learn later, these users
will tend to continue to underestimate their connection to GNU even if
they do learn the facts.

When we began trying to support the GNU/Linux system, we found this
widespread misinformation led to a practical problem--it hampered
cooperation on software maintenance.  Normally when users change a GNU
program to make it work better on a particular system, they send the
change to the maintainer of that program; then they work with the
maintainer, explaining the change, arguing for it, and sometimes
rewriting it for the sake of the overall coherence and maintainability
of the package, to get the patch installed.  But people who thought of
themselves as "Linux users" showed a tendency to release a forked
"Linux-only" version of the GNU program and consider the job done.  In
some cases we had to redo their work in order to make GNU programs run
as released in GNU/Linux systems.

How should the GNU project encourage its users to cooperate?  How
should we spread the idea that freedom for computer users is
important?

We must continue to talk about the freedom to share and change
software--and to teach other users to value these freedoms.  If we
value having a free operating system, it makes sense to think about
preserving those freedoms for the long term.  If we value having a
variety of free software, it makes sense to think about encouraging
others to write free software, instead of proprietary software.

However, it is not enough just to talk about freedom; we must also
make sure people know the reasons it is worth listening to what we
say.

Long explanations such as our philosophical articles are one way of
informing the public, but you may not want to spend so much time on
the matter.  The most effective way you can help with a small amount
of work is simply by using the terms "Linux-based GNU system" or
"GNU/Linux system", instead of "Linux system," when you write about or
mention such a system.  Seeing these terms will show many people the
reason to pay attention to our philosophical articles.

The system as a whole is more GNU than Linux; the name "GNU/Linux" is
fair.  When you are choosing the name of a distribution or a user
group, a name with "GNU/Linux" will reflect both roots of the combined
system, and will bring users into connection with both--including the
spirit of freedom and community that is the basis and purpose of GNU.


Copyright 1996, 2002 Richard Stallman
Verbatim copying and redistribution is permitted
without royalty as long as this notice is preserved.