On Wed, Feb 15, 2012 at 10:01:18AM +0100, Raphael Hertzog wrote:
> it would be nice to extend http://wiki.debian.org/DerivativesFrontDesk (or
> the FAQ) with a list of reasons why one would want to cooperate more
> closely with Debian (and also to be fair a list of possible downsides).
Thanks for starting this discussion. It is true---and a bit surprising,
now that you made me think of it---that we haven't written that down
properly. Nonetheless I've had similar discussions with developers of
several derivatives.
> Advantages:
You've proposed pragmatic reasons to cooperate (in form of advantages)
here, which are fine. But I'd like to also see a sort of "ethical"
reason to cooperate more closely with Debian, possibly as the first and
foremost reason.
Distributions are means to an end: distributing Free Software to users.
They are not an end by themselves. With that, it comes the fact that
making Free Software succeed is more important than having any single
*distro* succeed. Hence, for those who accept this reasoning,
contributing to their respective upstream is a moral obligation to be
good citizens of the Free Software ecosystem. With that comes advantages
and disadvantages, as those you've started to list.
I think that the above is the philosophical view of upstream-downstream
relationships that emanates from the Debian Social Contract. We cannot
expect our downstream to follow it, but we should put it forward
prominently in discussing reasons to cooperate more closely with Debian.
Cheers.
--
Stefano Zacchiroli zack@{upsilon.cc,pps.jussieu.fr,debian.org} . o .
Maître de conférences ...... http://upsilon.cc/zack ...... . . o
Debian Project Leader ....... @zack on identi.ca ....... o o o
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