Re: death of the gif format
On Mon, 6 Dec 1999, Johno Sullivan wrote:
> wrt to discussion to remove gifs and related utilities from potato.
> This won't help much in killing the format. Debian is a very small % of
> total OS out there. I need gifs for the work I do (web development).
> Clients need to see the work that is done. Some people won't upgrade to
> potato if there are no gif utilities in it.
>
> result: Weaken Debian to weaken gif format. Which is more important?
1. Nobody said anything about removing all gif utilities (at least I don't
think that was the intent) but only about removing most tools to create
them.
2. If you need gif utilities, for your work, ask yourself (and your
management) why? PNG is a viable alternative. If the answer is
still that you need them for arcane reasons, then the proposal still
allows for a2gif. If you need more than that, then find & compile
your own utilities. There are *lots* of things Debian does not
include that meet special needs of a small percentage of our total
user base. When there are good free alternatives, I see no reason
for Debian to include all that extra bloat. We need to focus on
our core compentency: producing the best possible free OS.
3. As for making a difference. *Someone* has to carry the banner for
free software. Debian is the banner-bearer. I'm not a "religious"
free-software zealot. But I do recognize the value of the role that
Debian takes, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with what percentage
of the total OS market we represent. It has everything to do with
principles and leadership. We hold the bar a bit higher, and as long
as we are still being heard, the whole free software world benefits
as a result.
Ben
--
nSLUG http://www.nslug.ns.ca synrg@sanctuary.nslug.ns.ca
Debian http://www.debian.org synrg@debian.org
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