Re: sid: libc6-2.2.5-4 kills vmware workstation 3.0
On Tue, Apr 09, 2002 at 08:58:20PM +0200, Jeroen Dekkers wrote:
> Of course you can say that in the social contract says "Thus, although
> non-free software isn't a part of Debian, we support its use," but if
> I interpret that correctly, it just means the non-free software
> packages provided by Debian. And this actually my major complaint with
> the social contract, it's too vague to actually agree or disagree with
> it. I just interpretted it in the way I think was meant and agreed,
> because that is a lot easier than trying to change the social
> contract.
That is not by any stretch of the imagination merely an interpretation. I
don't believe anyone is arguing that we should support vmware nor any piece
of non-free software, whether in the non-free archives or not. The fact is,
users do use non-free software and we support them, the users, in spite of
the fact that they do this [unspeakably horrible, depraved thing].
The fellow asked about a potential glibc problem with vmware, and as such it
related to a piece of free software in Debian that we support. The spirit
in which help was rendered to the user is the same spirit in which the
Social Contract was written: certainly, this fellow uses vmware, which is
non-free, and which we do not support, but we forgive him that and try to
see if the problem might actually relate to glibc itself, which we do
support. This situation exemplifies perfectly why this clause is in the
Social Contract to begin with: it is not a pledge of support for non-free,
but an acknowledgement that our users use it, and that we still support them
in spite of it.
Who are you to stomp in and say categorically that we can't answer questions
relating to vmware if and when we feel some part of the problem may fall
within Debian's domain? And Social Contract notwithstanding, who are you to
squelch the desire of anyone among us to help the user in any matter,
thereby building a relationship of trust and respect upon which we can build
better software? Your attitude from the very outset stank, and your attempts
to cover yourself after you were called on it are pathetic.
Ben
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