** On Jun 09, John Goerzen scribbled: > > > > festvox packages, and I certainly would hate to lose angband and > > > > zangband (which are only in non free since they prevent commercial > > > > use; the sources are freely available for modification). > > > > > > Mozilla ought to be amply ready by the time woody is released. > > > > But it isn't *now*, which is when you are proposing to throw out Netscape. > > So what if Netscape is missing from unstable? Users aren't running > unstable, and developers are sufficiently mature to know how to deal > with the situation themselves. Is 'sufficiently mature' supposed to mean 'do it yourself if you want it'? Hmm... is that also mean I'll have to maintain all the non-free packages I use on my own? That's fine, but I just hope those who are official Debian developers won't be forced to spend too much time maintaining (each of them, separately) all the non-free packages they need - because that would have a serious impact on Debian itself.... > > b)having them on the ftp site means people can get packaged-up > > versions of the non-free software they need/want, knowing that it's > > well-maintained and will integrate properly with their system, and > > that any problems can be dealt with via the BTS. > > Having them on any other FTP site would mean the same, wouldn't it? No. For the vast majority of users these packages belong in the Debian *infrastructure* - people feel that they can get support (regarding Debian issues with these packages) from Debian developers - and that's the fact. if they are sent away to some other ftp site they will feel orphaned debian-wise, and they will have every reason to feel so. Because if their taken-from-elsewhere copy of Netscape .deb will fail they will ask for help on some netscape support list. There, in turn, they will learn that the problem they faced is not caused by Netscape itself, but by its packaging for Debian and they will be sent away to the Debian lists. Well, they will come here just to learn that "Debian doesn't support this package. Sorry. Gotta look for help somewhere else." So much for Debian welfare... marek
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