Re: apt-get install wordperfect?
James Mastros <james@rtweb.net> writes:
> On Wed, May 26, 1999 at 08:01:27PM -0500, Mark Mealman wrote:
> > Is it possible for commercial software to make it into the Debian
> > archives(presumably in non-free)?
> [...]
>
> I'd tend to agree with the feeling in the above (apt-able archives of
> non-(DFSG)-free but (beer)-free are a Good Thing), but don't like the idea
> of Debian doing it -- it just dosn't seem like your (Caveat empator: I am
> not a debian-developer (yet)) place, and it almost certianly wasn't the idea
> of the people donating server space/bandwidth to be hosting commercial
> software.
I emphatically deny that.
Our (Debian's) place is to provide a truly integrated OS. An
integrated OS which lacks integration for key pieces of the puzzle
(such as commercial databases) lowers the general usefulness of Debian
to our users.
Now, clearly, our priority is on free software. However, I get upset
at people who get upset at other people for packaging non-free
software. Packages for non-free software is a fine addition to
Debian, so long as it make the user's experience of Debian better.
Sure, it's not "official" Debian, but still -- the user will benefit.
Note that in some cases, commercial licensing doesn't even allow the
Debian archive to distribute packages. In those cases, installer
packages (like the Metro-X motif installer) is an alternative. In
some case (possibly this holds for Oracle/Linux) the upstream files
are just much too large to sensibly put on the archives -- again, an
installer would work fine.
Third party apt'able .deb areas is ok, but not optimal. Such packages
are 2nd tier, don't exploit our bug-tracking system, and most users
will never see it. Also, it reminds me too much of RedHat (with every
bozo distributing RPMs, and of *very* uneven quality).
So, it all comes down to where the *developers* want to expend their
effort. If you're a RMS philosophical follower, you wouldn't touch
non-free software with a 10 foot pole. If you're of a more
"pragmatic" mind set (i.e., Geeze, I wanna be able to hack on my
non-free paying job at home, for instance), then you'd really get a
lot of benefit from some commercial .debs.
--
.....Adam Di Carlo....adam@onShore.com.....<URL:http://www.onShore.com/>
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