RE: Why the GR is not necessary
A few words from a lowly "luser" who's been around for a while...
(you remember us... the folks that actually download and use this
stuff)
I have to say, lots of these discussions are constructive and lots are
just silly. So far, no one has commented on the probable outcome
if the GR is passed in quite the way I see it happening.
Currently, Debian has *control* over the non-free section. You may
continue to say it isn't part of Debian, but that is not quite true.
"non-free"
and "contrib" are not part of the "official" Debian that is released on cd.
But, Debian has control over what does and does not go into contrib and
non-free, so these are indeed part of the Debian Project.
Now, suppose non-free gets nuked... And suppose a group of folks
actually get server space and an infrastructure set up to support it.
Would you call it non-free? I would not. Maybe debs-galore.net or
something. The point is, Debian no longer has any control over what
it is called or what goes in it. It might even grow to have lots of DFSG
software in it. Guess what? There isn't any distinction between non-free
and free at all. You can't tell the difference unless you bother to read
the license yourself. And Debian Project would have no control over it
at all...
That's the most benign scenario that I can think of if this GR passes.
I don't think this GR would be particularly helpful to free software.
As long as Debian controls non-free, there will be a distinction between
free and non-free software. If Debian nukes non-free, the distinction
will be lost.
I will use Debian for as long as it is the most useful and highest quality
distribution. I sincerely hope it is for a long time. Try to address the
issues, don't attack each other, and get this over with asap. Life's
too short...
jim
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