> I need to say something first, to get it off my chest. I think that you have > a somewhat tainted view of the world. Your primary system is alpha, not > i386. By being non-i386, you already limit the amount of non-free software > that is available to you, so you don't know how useful it really can be, in a > production, real world environment, where machines needs to talk to disparate > worlds. Bar the fact that the only decent compiler/libs for math stuff for alpha are non-free for now. > > No, the contract is between us and our USERS. > > > > > 3. Supporting non-free software gives nothing to Debian. > > Oh, but it does. It gives us more users. It also gives Debian opportunity to run on systems where the hardware vendor has not seen the light (TM) yet and has released only binary and/or non-free drivers. Spell NVIDIA, Intel, 3COM, Lucent, ad naseum. And they are not alone. Yeah I know some of these have free drivers. IMHO: they may see the light one day. IMHO: they are not going to see it if you kick them out forcefully from a distro. IMHO: their stuff accompanied with the appropriate verbal voodoo that they are bad-bad-bad should be in the non-free section even now. Disclaimer: I am not a debian developer, hence I cannot formally object.
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