Dear Johan,
I think there is a common understanding of what Smalltalk is and what is not: Ruby, Java and many others ARE Smalltalk inspired. Up to now I considered all Smalltalks that carry that term and also Squeak and the Pharo fork as "true" Smalltalks.
Squeak definitly never had that goal. When I discovered it it was explicitly stated that is was �Work in progress based on Smalltalk 80 with which it is still reasonably compatible�.
By Doru's words he considers Pharo more in the "inspired, non-Smalltalk" corner. That is ok, yet has consequences.
Yes, the freedom to do things that are not in all the other Smalltalks already. Not because these are �not Smalltalk�, only because they where not there in the past, even though maybe they
should have.
Marcus