On Thu, Nov 14, 2002 at 04:51:26PM +0100, Marc Haber wrote: > On Wed, 13 Nov 2002 09:16:14 -0600, John Goerzen > <jgoerzen@complete.org> wrote: > >On Wed, Nov 13, 2002 at 11:49:08AM +0100, Marc Haber wrote: > >> In practice, people don't care what is in the operating system > >> distribution. They care what they can apt. > > > >That's a key point, and I think it's likely that some apt-able repository > >for Debian non-free software will pop up should this GR pass. > > Yes, and the time sacrificed for that repository will be subtracted > from the time sacrificed for Debian proper. You cannot know this. 1) Some people may decide they don't feel like fooling with non-free anymore, and decide to spend time on Free Software instead. 2) Some people may decide to not fool with non-free anymore, and use the time newly made available to hang out with friends and family or pursue some pastime unrelated to computer software. 3) Some people may decide to take an extra hour or so out of their day for a few weeks to help get the new non-free mechanism off the ground. 4) As you note, some people pay decide to divert time they would otherwise spend on Debian to helping the non-free mechanism off the ground. 5) Some people may get disgusted with the Debian Project entirely, resign in anger, and/or stop working on software altogether, or volunteer their time in helping to ensure the success of Microsoft Palladium. > Hence, Debian will be hurt by your GR. In the scenarios above: 1) Free Software benefits, and likely our users do as well in the short or long term (though they may be inconvenienced in the short term) 2) Users of the non-free software we maintain may be inconvenienced. Free Software is not directly affected. 3) The status quo is preserved for our users, and Free Software is not directly affected. 4) Free software is detrimentally affected, and some of our users are inconvenienced for the sake of others. 5) Both our users and Free Software lose out by the margin of value that the developer contributed. The only conclusion I can draw from the above is that it would be a good idea for people not to react with vengeance if the GR proposal doesn't go the way they want. (After all, it's conceivable that some proponents of the GR might resign in anger if the GR fails to pass, and that has the same effect as scenario 5.) It would also be a good idea if people participating in this discussion didn't tell people they disagree with to leave the Project. That is likely to hurt both Free Software and our users, and thus amounts to telling other developers to work against the Social Contract. Ultimately, we cannot dictate to other people how they will spend their time. We can also not predict with high reliability in aggregate how they will spend it. There are, in my estimation, too many variables. -- G. Branden Robinson | Exercise your freedom of religion. Debian GNU/Linux | Set fire to a church of your branden@debian.org | choice. http://people.debian.org/~branden/ |
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