Re: Bug#353277: ndiswrapper in main
Raul Miller writes ("Re: Bug#353277: ndiswrapper in main"):
> On 3/7/06, Ian Jackson <ian@davenant.greenend.org.uk> wrote:
> > In our opinion the relevant principle is that:
> >
> > (i) If the user or administrator who is in charge of the Debian
> > installation would have to adopt non-free software X to make
> > sensible use of free software Y, then Y goes in contrib.
>
> Existing policy says something similar for free software X which
> has not been packaged in main, for whatever reason.
Are you saying wine should be in contrib ? No-one seemed to be
arguing that it should be until we had this conversation ...
> For example, some people might think that early versions of
> PINE are free, but Debian has declined to package them.
> Despite the text of the license, there is a threat of harassment
> by the University of Washington, and I think we have a fairly
> strong consensus that supporting PINE just isn't worth the
> bother.
Err, probably this just means that no-one can be bothered to be the
maintainer ?
> We can have other reasons for not including free software in
> Main. I believe packages belong in Contrib if they rely on the
> installation of software we're not likely to package.
You have to say something more subtle if you want to leave wine in
main. It seems that our current policy depends on whether the
non-packaged software is not packaged because of its legal or
political status, or for some technical reason (eg, consider the free
Windows accounting suite someone mentioned).
Ian.
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