* Jeroen Dekkers (jeroen@dekkers.cx) wrote: > > Blow off the non-free software user, no. If you have nothing to offer > > by way of help with vmware itself, then your silence will be enough to > > indicate that. > > And the user will never find out why he's having that problem. I don't > think that not telling the user the cause of the problem is helping > him. And our priorities are free software, but we aren't allowed with > some respects free software is better than non-free software? You didn't tell him why he's having that problem. You didn't tell him the cause of the problem. The problem was not the non-free software. The problem was that glibc was changed in a way which broke some programs (both free and non-free) which depended on the old behaviour. The non-free software (just like the free software) needed to be changed, yes, but that isn't the fault of the software being non-free any more than it is the fault of the free software being free. > > As a > > member of the Debian project who believes firmly in the whole of our Social > > Contract, I cannot comprehend what makes you think you can throw about "we > > can" and "we can't" in blatant disregard for: > > > > "We will support our users who develop and run non-free > > software on Debian ..." > > The "can't help" means "not being able to help you", because we can't > fix any non-free software we aren't allowed to see and modify the > source of. They can be helped if someone wants to help them. As simple as 'downgrade glibc'. We should not tell users to 'go somewhere else'. If no one wants to answer the question no one is going to answer it. That would be indication enough for them to take it elsewhere. It doesn't require you to do anything. > Hmm, I knew somebody would find something to complain about in my > second try to word my opinion. I'm not even going to try to do it a > third time. Please and thank you. Stephen
Attachment:
pgpM1TdEVrdIy.pgp
Description: PGP signature