Re: Debian Conference 2 Registration
Joe Drew wrote:
> On Sat, 2002-04-06 at 15:09, Jeroen Dekkers wrote:
> > > I don't *like* the registration page being hosted on IIS. But I prefer a
> > > registration page to no registration page at all.
> >
> > Is it that difficult to make a registration page with free software?
>
> To the best of my knowledge, no. But I didn't have time to learn how and
> do it, and Lindows.com decided that they wanted to pay one of their
> engineers to do it. It's quite simple: nobody else did it, so I took
> Lindows.com up on their offer.
This is rather unfair, since nobody asked for this type of help.
I know that there are several people in our project who do speak PHP,
which would be a proper language to do so, it's also enabled on auric,
klecker and pandora. If that's not good enough, there's still perl
and python run through /cgi-bin/ just like it is on master. We also
have databases in use on several hosts.
> Why should we refuse? Lindows.com came to us, not the other way around.
This is an ethical question. We, since we are affiliated with Free
Software and trying to enforce and distribute this, should, of course,
refuse to accept donations of non-free software.
You may not aware of the discussion we had last year, when VMware
offered to donate five (or another amount, not sure anymore) licenses
of their vmware product to Debian in order to help us develop
boot-floppies.
We *did* refuse to accept it. Single developers may use this product
on their own and may even receive a donation from VMware Inc., but the
Debian project must not depend on non-free software and should
publically refuse such donations, especially as long as there are free
alternatives (even if they still need to mature).
> Remember, Lindows.com wants to contribute to us. We should accept their
> support with open arms provided they don't try to subvert our
> principles. A web page on a proprietary OS doesn't subvert our
> principles, IMO.
If Debian Conference 2 is an official Debian even, then we now do
depend on non-free, proprietary software, run by a third party, even
if there are free alternatives (like php, perl, python, as well as
developers who would be willing to spend an afternoon on implementing
a registration form).
This is what bugs me, and this is the part with which I have a severe problem.
Regards,
Joey
--
A mathematician is a machine for converting coffee into theorems.
Please always Cc to me when replying to me on the lists.
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-request@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org
Reply to: