The vast majority of users get their emacs from the Linux distributions, who
in turn get it from the GNU people. To the extent they've monopolized that
distribution channel, the maintainers owe us something. They alone can revive
emacs's fortunes, or squander its good name by failing to keep with the times.
> To the extent they've monopolized that distribution channel, the maintainers owe us something. They alone can revive emacs's fortunes, or squander its good name by failing to keep with the times.
I don't even know how that makes any logical sense. The maintainers aren't what they are by virtue of nepotism. Rather they are only one who shows up, voluntarily. That doesn't mean they owe anyone shit, nor does it mean they are preventing others like you to show up and do what needs to be done. So no, if there is anyone who can "revive" Emacs' fortunes, it's people like you, that is if they bother to show up instead of complaining which is always easy.
I also don't get your obsession with "name". XEmacs was a fork, and for a while it was wildly popular. So if you have fundamental difference with emacs-devel, then go fork it? If your fork becomes worthy and solves many people's problems, then all linux distributions will package yours too.
The entire Guile Emacs thing was a product of a GSoC project, the moment it ended so did the project. None volunteered to take up the mantle, even though to this day people lament in forums about how it never became a thing. Turns out that solutions don't magically manifest without people putting the work, what a surprise. But I suppose this is to be expected, when people become too spoiled by other people's labour.
It's OSS, people can and have forked it before, if the present (primary) maintainers aren't doing what people want then they can do it themselves. In the meantime, quite a few people are using emacs as it is and it is getting updates that people seem to care about (like native compilation of elisp).
They don't own it in any meaningful sense. They do not prevent others from distributing variations and forks via those same channels. It's not like Apple or MS who would sue someone for releasing "Xcode-but-not" or "Visual Studio but not". That's the beauty of OSS. Until you pay them or your desires otherwise align with theirs they don't have to do anything for you, but you aren't prevented from doing it yourself.
Okay, I'll make sure Ubuntu's next release puts my fork of emacs in /usr/bin instead of Gnu's. If you're still not understanding this, you might read Nudge by Thaler and Sunstein.
You used the term "monopoly", which is absurd. It's FOSS for crying out loud. Literally fork it, that's what XEmacs did (which has fallen by the wayside). Sure, you can't get Ubuntu to publish your emacs alternative as if it were GNU Emacs. Boo fucking hoo. The Ubuntu maintainers have too much sense to be talked into doing stupid things by you. But if you build it and develop a community, you can get it published through their package systems just like all the other software out there. You have to do some work to get there, but so did everyone else who has a package in all the Linux distro package management systems.
If you believe that there is a fundamental flaw in the GNU Emacs maintainership and you cannot join them to influence it yourself and you care enough, fork it. Build your own community. Give it its own name (Valmer Emacs, vemacs for short) and get on with it.
The vast majority of users get their emacs from the Linux distributions, who in turn get it from the GNU people. To the extent they've monopolized that distribution channel, the maintainers owe us something. They alone can revive emacs's fortunes, or squander its good name by failing to keep with the times.