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Re: Draft new DFSG



Dale Scheetz wrote:
> > We add a preamble saying both that: 
> > 
> > 1) Although meeting the DFSG is a necessary condition for a package to
> > be included in the main Debian, not every package that meets these
> > guidelines will necessarily become part of Debian, and one shouldn't
> > view the fact that some program is not part of Debian as a statement
> > by the Debian maintainers that said program does not meet the DFSG.
> > We (the Debian developers) may opt to keep certain packages out of
> > Debian for reasons other than those specified in the DFSG.
> 
> This is a terrible idea!

No it's not. Here are a few reasons we may chose to keep a package out of
debian even though it meets the dfsg:

* because it is of very low quality, and there is already a far superior
  alternative that is also free
* because it implements something inherently unsecure, or is written in such
  an insecure manner that fixing it would require a rewrite
* because it is 5 gb in size and will only be used by a few hundred people
  on earth.

All of these seem valid to me. The fact is, no-one in their right mind would
wnat to maintain such packages for debian, so they never get into the
distibution in the first place. All free software is *not* in debian, and it
never will be.

-- 
see shy jo


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