> We provide contrib as a service to our users so they won't have to download to whole section and will just have to download packages from non-free instead. > It can be useful behing a 28.8kbps line. I'm behind a 28.8k line here - so I completely understand. But I still think it's dumb to ship packages that don't work on the official CD. If a user wants that - they should by a 3 CD pack - two official CDs and one unofficial CD with the non-free stuff. I think Debian should be encouraging the packaging of a non-free CD with the official Debian CDs. The cases where somebody buys just the 2 official Debian CDs by themselves should not be common, until we have good replacements for Netscape, and several other commonly used non-free programs. We should probably have a package that makes an unofficial CD that is recommmended to be shipped along with Debian - for the sole purpose of holding non-free and contrib packages so we have a commercially marketable distribution. Think about it: when somebody is shopping for a Linux distribution, they aren't going to be educated in the ins-and-outs of free software licensing. Quite often, it will come down to who is shipping largest number of software packages. If CD makers don't include the non-free stuff with Debian, people will buy Slackware or Red Hat. Let's face it - very few people buy a Linux distribution based on quality and integration alone. We're currently stuck with a "grab bag" mentality amongst the consumers. Changing that requires a sophisticated marketing campaign - which none of the current Debian CD makers is up to yet. So, it's not unreasonable to force all the contrib stuff off the official CD - because anybody making a marketable version of Debian will have a non-free CD where it can go. The nice side-effect is that we will have more room for the main distribution on the official CD. Cheers, - Jim
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