Re: Questions to candidates

[Martin Michlmayr <tbm@cyrius.com>]

* Andrew Suffield <asuffield@debian.org> [2004-03-03 06:58]:
> > to use new APT sources list while at the same time supporting the old
> > APT lines (i.e. still keeping it on Debian mirrors) for a while.
> 
> I knew *somebody* was going to bite this one.

Yeah, and simply because having a clear transition plan is imho the
best solution if you want to have non-free removed.

> It has proven to be difficult to impossible to get people to do any
> real work towards doing things in this "obvious" way.
> 
> The work to provide an upgrade plan for non-free users must be
> performed by either or both of these groups:
> 
>  (a) Those who wish to see non-free removed
>  (b) Those who wish to see non-free kept
> 
> Group (a) does not want to do this work because they want to have
> nothing to do with non-free. Group (b) does not want to do this work
> because they want non-free to be in Debian, not external to it.

[...]

> And I've said all this before.

I'm aware of the discussions, and the lack of volunteers for doing a
proper transition.  However, I don't think the GR will be successful
without having a clear transition plan in mind, and in fact, I'd argue
the GR should only be done after a transition has been done already.
This is just me speaking as a random person, and not necessarily as
DPL or DPL candidate.

I have not yet come to a conclusion whether the DPL should take
position on the non-free question.  You can argue in 2 ways.  First,
you can argue that the DPL should represent all of Debian, and hence
not take a position on this matter.  Second, you can argue that the
DPL should provide a clear vision for the project and removing
non-free could be seen as pushing the "free software" vision.  As I
said, I have not come to a conclusion yet.  (I should therefore also
mention that the "remove non-free: yes" answer I gave in another mail
was from my personal perspective, rather than speaking as DPL or DPL
candidate.)


* Anthony Towns <aj@azure.humbug.org.au> [2004-03-03 17:51]:
> (Or was this tbm volunteering? ;)

Maybe; I also might have some people in mind who could be interested.
But it's not on the top of my TODO list (either as DPL or as a normal
developer, see above).  If the project as a whole agrees that having a
clear transition (moving non-free software to another machine, while
still mirroring it on debian.org mirrors for a year or two) would be a
good idea, I'll certainly put more time and energy into pursuing this.
-- 
Martin Michlmayr
tbm@cyrius.com