Re: About sponsoring non-free packages

["Lex Spoon" <lex@cc.gatech.edu>]

> >   I propose that we do not sponsor people for non-free packages.
[...]
> >   People that we want to join us and seeking sponsors for
> >   non-free package are showing that they do not understand
> >   our philosophy and dedication to Free Software. 
> 


Debian *does* support non-free software -- users are simply supposed to
read the licenses before they install it.   Here's a statement from
http://www.debian.org/intro/about:

"Although Debian believes in free software, there are cases where people
want or need to put commercial software on their machine. Whenever
possible Debian will support this. There are even a growing number of
packages whose sole job is to install commercial software into a Debian
system."


I happen to agree with this philosophy, but even if you don't, we need
to decide this as a group and stick with it.  As long as we have a
non-free section, let's do as good of a job with it as we can -- and
that includes attracting developers to support it.


Lex Spoon