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Re:Emacs maintainer steps down by thaumasiotes on Tuesday October 13, 2015 @05:44PM (#10383694)
I don't think you're justified in reading in your own definition of "best", when RMS defines it himself right there in your quote. If you're prepared to agree that the best possible chocolate mousse is probably "good" in ways that are incomparable to the best possible steam locomotive, then all you have in your comment here is misleading rhetoric.

Kind of funny to then sign off with

> I'm not sharing my opinion of whether this is good or bad; I just dislike bs

Re:Emacs maintainer steps down by x0x0 on Tuesday October 13, 2015 @06:03PM (#10383791)
the thing is, words have meanings. Writing

   we want to create the best X (*)
   [...]
   * NB: not the best
or

   we want the best X (redefinition of best)
is bs

Finding mangling language to deceive dumb is orthogonal to my opinion of the political goals of the gnu foundation.

Re:Emacs maintainer steps down by dragonwriter on Tuesday October 13, 2015 @07:21PM (#10384125)
"Best" means "most optimized for some utility function". It always requires the utility function to be defined, and there's always an infinite array of conflicting utility functions that could be used -- that's the nature of "best".

Stallman is, quite properly, clearly addressing the relevant utility function. This may differ from your preferred utility function, but that doesn't make RMS's definition a "redefinition of best".

Re:Emacs maintainer steps down by _delirium on Tuesday October 13, 2015 @06:18PM (#10383861)
How is it a "redefinition" of best? What was the original definition? Unless you add some qualifier, "best" for a software project doesn't have any kind of objective definition. For a company it might be "most profitable", for a newbie it might be "easiest to use", etc. There are a ton of criteria that can go into it. RMS helpfully explains in broad terms what in his opinion would constitute the "best Emacs".
Re:Emacs maintainer steps down by x0x0 on Tuesday October 13, 2015 @06:24PM (#10383890)
In the context of avoiding widely desired features in order to preserve the political goals of the gnu foundation, it's straightforward to understand.