RE:removing non-free (from a current debian user)
If there is one thing that really bothers me about
Debian (and I guess it one of two things) it is the
number of self religious zelots who believe that
anything less than the GPL is the work of the devil
and must be purged from the face of the earth (or at
least Debian). At times on this list I must say some
of you are worse than RMS is this regard! (After all
He said He could live with the QPL). We who would use
non-free software (or at least software not TOTALY
free) seem to be regarded as the devil's children
sometimes.
There is a lot of software out there that does is not
totally un-incumbered by restrictive licenses, that is
none the less, very usefull and maybe can not be
replaced by totaly free software (yet). Some of us
would choose to use such software, and would prefer it
to be built to as high a quality as the rest of the
very fine distribution that debian is.
I can see nothing wrong with separating the free from
the non-free, not puting the non-free software on an
'iso image, or even not having it on the main debian
ftp site (leave it on mirrors). Let debian developers
package this stuff though! Have a list of recommended
free alternates to non-free software (if they exist!).
And PLEASE realize that some of us ARE willing to set
our standards on what is 'free' just a little be lower
than yours. The QPL is an example of such. It is a
misfortune that this license clashes with the GPL like
oil on water, as both license really do strive toward
the same goal though via different roads.
Choice is the ultimate freedom, don't take away my
freedome to choose! I think I can make my own
intellegent decisions on what is good for me!
Finally I hope this flame war dies down, and the
really important work of getting Potato out the door,
and Woody ready for testing is not interrupted.
(Stepping off broken soapbox) :-)
=====
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