On Fri, Apr 23, 2004 at 11:39:44AM -0300, Humberto Massa wrote:
[..]
> That is, it's definitions go from the most specific (23, 24) to the
> most generic (interesting ones, that apply to the sense people
> seem to prefer here: 5, 20; ones that can be stretched to mean
> that, too: 3, 13).
Thanks for compiling that exhaustive list! There are certainly many
different opinions on the topic. I think the distinction between the
"software", i.e. the package of the program and any required or
optional supporting materials, and the "program", i.e. the
instructions that are intended to execute on a machine, is important.
What I meant was that if programs==software, then there are other
things besides free software in Debian (supporting materials), which
makes the statement "Debian is 100% Free Software" false, even though
the statement can be forced true with some "theoretical machine"
pedantry.
If programs(=software, then the given statement is true, if we
consider non-executable supporting materials not to be software.
Which one makes more sense?