Re: Debian FreeBSD
Friday, November 19, 1999, 7:30:29 AM, John wrote:
> Suffice it to say that your message makes me both extremely angry and
> extremely sad. I am trying to be as civil as pssible in my response.
*chuckle*
> You are demonstrating a lack of understanding of the purpose and
> reasons for creation of the DFSG. The DFSG was designed to identify
> which non-GPL licenses were sufficiently free to allow us to
> distribute software under them in main. It is NOT an endorsement of
> any particular such license, nor does it mean that we must support
> them, nor does it mean that we think they're good.
OK, given this, let's look at #10...
-----
Example Licenses
The "GPL", "BSD", and "Artistic" licenses are examples of licenses that we
consider "free".
-----
Note that GPL is listed as an example just the same as BSD. Therefore,
according to your paragraph, the GPL, too, is not endorsed, doesn't mean we
need to support it nor does it mean we think it is free.
Which, to me, is exactly what the DSFG is about. You'll note that it
doesn't state the GPL anywhere else. It is a set of guidelines to define what
licenses would work with Debian. GPL, just like BSD, is merely one example.
> This goes against everything Debian stands for, and goes against our Social
> Contract.
No, it doesn't.
-----
Our Priorities are Our Users and Free Software
We will be guided by the needs of our users and the free-software community.
We will place their interests first in our priorities. We will support the
needs of our users for operation in many different kinds of computing
environment. We won't object to commercial software that is intended to run on
Debian systems, and we'll allow others to create value-added distributions
containing both Debian and commercial software, without any fee from us. To
support these goals, we will provide an integrated system of high-quality,
100% free software, with no legal restrictions that would prevent these kinds
of use.
-----
--
Steve C. Lamb | I'm your priest, I'm your shrink, I'm your
ICQ: 5107343 | main connection to the switchboard of souls.
-------------------------------+---------------------------------------------
Reply to: