Should the Debian system distribution be entirely Free Software?
I think so. That's what the Social Contract says.
However, there seem to be an awful lot of people who disagree. (Some of them
even seem to think that the Social Contract says something different,
although I simply can't see any basis for that.)
Perhaps you think the Debian system distribution, "main", should be
Free Software plus firmware which isn't free software.
Perhaps you think it should be Free Software plus documentation which isn't
free software.
Perhaps you think it should be Free Software plus boot sectors which aren't
free software.
Perhaps you think it should be Free Software plus standards documents which
aren't free software.
Perhaps you think it should be Free Software plus political tracts which
aren't free software.
Perhaps you think it should be Free Software plus whatever makes it a
complete, working system, regardless of whether it's free software.
Perhaps you think it should be Free Software plus whatever is convenient for
Debian's users, regardless of whether it's free software.
Perhaps you think it should be Free Software plus whatever's been sneaked in
in the past, regardless of whether it's free software. (I hope nobody really
thinks this.)
Or perhaps you think it should be 100% Free Software.
Perhaps the majority of DDs do *not* think it should be 100% Free Software.
This is certainly an impression I might get from the loud people all arguing
for their favorite non-free-software items to be included in "main".
Or perhaps they are simply a loud and annoying minority, which is what I
suspect.
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Are there going to be endless arguments about each of these points?
Are there always going to be developers who want to put their favorite
non-free-software item into Debian?
Can anything be done about it?
Well, at the moment, I'm tending towards "Yes", "No", and "Maybe, but I can't
think of anything". Perhaps someone else can think of something. :-P
--
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