Re: Discussion - non-free software removal
On Tue, Nov 12, 2002 at 10:21:31PM -0600, John Goerzen wrote:
> Furthermore, even given that, the software that exists now in non-free could
> be adapted fairly trivially to exist in contrib (via installer packages) and
> could thus continue to live within the ftp.debian.org framework. My
> proposal does not call for the removal of contrib.
Well, that just leads to developers who personally want to use non-free
software wasting their time creating convoluted contrib installer
packages. I want trn4 (in particular I want it to continue being
convenient for the person who provides the news server I use to install
it on his machine), and I find it valuable to have a support framework
for it in the BTS, so I'd have to mess around with an installer package.
I have no desire to do this when it would be technically inferior. And
this wouldn't assuage the user confusion you talk about in the
slightest; Debian - the project! - still provides trn4, does it not?
Either do it properly, or not at all (my preference). This halfway house
is too slippery a proposal to discuss properly.
(Don't tell me that your proposal doesn't require support to be removed
from the BTS. While your proposal certainly doesn't explicitly say that,
it would require a certain amount of work to maintain support in
bugs.debian.org for packages not on ftp.debian.org; informally I suspect
that BTS support for non-free would wither and die if your proposal
passes, unless there's an amazing amount of enthusiasm that raises it
above all the other work to be done on the BTS.)
> We have gotten egg on our faces more than once when we're unable to
> fix security problems.
That would continue to apply to contrib installers.
> We've had problems with keeping architectures in sync.
That would apply in spades to contrib installers.
> Trouble with users misunderstanding what is a part of Debian and what
> isn't.
That would continue to apply to contrib installers.
> Trouble with people asserting that Debian has somehow "blessed" the
> programs in non-free.
That would continue to apply to contrib installers.
> Endless licensing problems (here's pine yet again), etc.
We have that half the time in main anyway. :)
Cheers,
--
Colin Watson [cjwatson@flatline.org.uk]
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