Re: General Resolution: Handling of the non-free section: proposedBallot

[David Schleef <ds@schleef.org>]

On Sat, Mar 06, 2004 at 02:05:57AM +0100, Sven Luther wrote:
> > Additional developers, such as myself, would be willing to work
> > on non-free packages, *provided that they are outside of Debian*.
> 
> Why ? And why do you not start working and establish your own repository
> for distributing your packages ? 

I already have a repository for distributing my own packages.  I
have no interest in doing this on a large scale, as that doesn't
scratch my itch -- I just don't care that much about it.

> And why you don't use this time to work on free packages instead ? 

I work on what I feel like working on.

> And more to the point, what would be the benefit to debian and the
> free/open/whatever community, since the main point is that these
> non-free packages are evil ?

I hardly think that anything in non-free is evil.  It is just
inconsistent with the principle "Debian will remain 100% free
software."

Debian can either vote to stand behind this principle, or not.
However, the vote isn't going to magically change what people want
to work on any more than your email will convince me to stop working
on what I want to work on.  The people who currently choose to
work on non-free packages will not suddenly decide "oh, Debian
decided to dump non-free, so I'll stop working on these packages".
No, they will simply upload the packages to a new, non-Debian
repository.[1]

Of course, that new repository would need a maintainer.  As I'm not
willing to step forward and do the work myself, I can't complain
too loudly if things don't go according to my preferences.



dave...



[1] I'm sure there are people who, for whatever reason, do not fit
this category.  Their existence does not invalidate my point.