Data does NOT belong in Debian (was: Stop Archive bloat)

[Philippe Troin <phil@fifi.org>]

[This is my last post on -devel on this topic. More discussion
encouraged in debian-project.]

Debian is about creating a Unix/linux/hurd distribution, not about
packaging everything under the sun in the .deb format.

I think we need a policy on "pure data" packages.

"Pure data" packages are a problem because:
  1) The way the Debian archive works requires the data to be stored
     twice (source package and .deb).
  2) There is NO packaging needed. It's just a tar ball.
  3) Where do we stop ? As someone says, there's nothing preventing
     me from uploading as debian package every single .wav or .mov
     file on the Internet just because it's useful.

This is what I believe are acceptable "pure data" packages:
  1) Data which is absolutely required for a program to work.
  2) Data historically present on all Unix systems (eg
     /usr/dict/words).
  3) Documentation (documentation packages should still remain).
  4) Small examples or data sets.
  5) Linux-specific or debian-specific data (HOWTOs, FAQs,
     debian-user-guide).

Examples of data packages which does NOT belong to debian (IMHO):
  1) Any kind of religious or political texts (bible-kjv, anarchism)
  2) Any kind of text easily findable on the web (RFCs (even though I
     love to have RFCs around, but we have a draw a line))
  3) Any datasets beyond examples or toy datasets
     (gmc-coast-whatever).

Pros of this policy:
  1) Makes Debian smaller.
  2) Avoids controversial materials (politics and religious texts)

Cons:
  1) People which don't have access to the net find these packages
     invaluable... 
    Reply: Yes, then create a separate project "WebDeb" with the goal
           of packaging anything in the .deb format.

Of course, with some common sense we would have avoided this
discussion.

Comments welcome, but ON debian-project only please.

Phil.