Re: Debian's ultimate size (was Re: Debian & BSD concerns)

[John Lapeyre <lapeyre@physics.arizona.edu>]

	There is still plenty of DFSG free stuff left to hoarde. 
This size is one of our unique strengths.   Someone will have 
to work hard to organize it, however.
	btw. is dvd expected to replace cdrom ? how certian is
it ? does anyone know the timescale of replacement ? 

Jim Pick <jim@jimpick.com> writes:

> Ben Collins <bmc@it.larc.nasa.gov> writes:
> 
> > I DON'T WANT DEBIAN DYING OF OVERBLOATEDNESS!
> > 
> > Now back to our regularly scheduled Debian distribution...
> 
> I disagree.  The bigger Debian gets, the more popular it is going to
> get.
> 
> Bandwidth and disks are cheap.  Developer enthusiasm is a valuable
> commodity.
> 
> There's no point in squashing enthusiasm just to save a bit of disk
> space.
> 
> I'm convinced that Debian will succeed as long as we keep high
> technical standards.  If we keep those, then the fact that we are
> monster sized is going to be a point in our favour.
> 
> Think "big" in terms of Arnold Schwarzenneger - not Marlon Brando.
> :-)
> 
> In the future, I suspect most people will buy Debian CDs (or DVDs)
> which only contain a subset of the full distribution.  Most mirror
> sites will only carry a subset as well.  I think we just have to
> accept that.  In fact, developing subsets of Debian is a substantial
> "value-added" service for people that are interested in doing that.
> 
> Debian is essentially greedy - this distribution is being built by a
> bunch of packrats.  We want everything!  Up to a point, that is.
> That's why the discussions about the DFSG are so important.
> 
> RMS wants us to adopt the GNU philosophy entirely, and strive for a
> completely copylefted future where proprietary software would be shut
> out.  It's a nice vision, but it's fundamentally at odds with what
> Debian has actually been doing.  We're a bit too greedy to look a gift
> horse (e.g. BSD licensed software) in the mouth.  I think that's the
> reason for the GNU/Debian split in the first place.
> 
> Let's get BIG!!!  :-)
> 

-- 
John Lapeyre <lapeyre@physics.arizona.edu>
Tucson,AZ     http://www.physics.arizona.edu/~lapeyre