On 9/23/06, Bdale Garbee <bdale@gag.com> wrote:
All of the arguments I've read and/or can come up with for pushing ndiswrapper into contrib seem to me to relate to whether ndiswrapper is "useful" without some other, probably non-free, software installed on the system. That seems like a slippery slope... lots of software in main isn't particularly "useful" to me. Does it make more sense to stay away from such arguments entirely?
It seems to me that this is the issue on which all decisions about contrib hinge. Software winds up in Contrib when substantially all use of the software requires some non-free component. As I see it, the problem with ndiswrapper -- and with the linux kernel -- is that it's useful at install time, but current practice with contrib and non-free means that anything in contrib or non-free is unavailable at install time for most users. Perhaps the thing to do here is wait for the firmware GR to settle out and make our choice based on that decision? After all, whatever principles let us deal with our non dfsg-free software issues should also apply in the context of contrib issues. -- Raul