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Re: Another Non-Free Proposal



> >> 	the Debian Project exists to create a distribution of free software;
> >>
> >> 	many Developers do not consider it moral or equitable to provide,
> >> 	freely, our project's resources to projects who are unwilling or
> >> 	unable to provide their code freely to the public;
> >
> > Two issues here: morality, and equitablity.
> >
> > [*] Morality: can you provide any reference to this moral code?
> 
On Sat, Jan 03, 2004 at 06:58:46PM -0500, Anthony DeRobertis wrote:
> I refer to individual moral codes in that statement. The project, of 
> course, does not have one.
> 
> One such moral code that is widely known (though not of a developer) is 
> as
> 	http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/philosophy.html

I don't see anything there which which would justify forcing people to
not support non-free.

Mind pointing out the specific moral precept involved?

> >
> > [*] Equitability: what is the unfairness, specifically
> 
> See above.

What, specifically is the unfairness?

> >> 	the importance of non-free software has greatly decreased since the
> >> 	founding of the project; and
> >
> > How do you measure this?
> 
> I do not have a quantitative measurement of this. I do notice, from 
> personal experience, that my reliance on non-free software has 
> lessened. For example, first with more able versions of konqueror, then 
> with Mozilla). For example, with PNG support in all major browsers, and 
> now with the GIF patent expiring. With Ogg Vorbis over MP3, and there 
> now even being several portable Vorbis players. With GCC's 
> ever-improving PowerPC support. With MySQL and PostgreSQL being able to 
> do what I used to have to use Oracle, etc. for.

Ok, I'm glad that you are less dependant on non-free than you used to be.

> >> 	outside groups have been quite able to provide well-integrated
> >> 	software no harder to obtain than that from Debian's own mirror
> >> 	network:
> >
> > I don't know what you're talking about here -- perhaps you should
> > ennumerate these groups.
> 
> http://www.apt-get.org/

What about BTS?

-- 
Raul



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