This one time, at band camp, Thomas Bushnell BSG said: > Stephen Gran <sgran@debian.org> writes: > > > Additionally, the use of the phrase "useful in a system with only free > > software on it" is not something I can find in either 2.2.1 or 2.2.2 > > (where the difference between main and contrib is spelled out) or > > anywhere in our foundation documents. Can you point me to where this > > requirement is mentioned in our policy and/or foundation documents? > > It's not in the foundation documents, it's in the definition of > contrib. Please remember, the Debian Policy Manual is not a > "foundation document". I see you have failed to notice the 'and/or' construct in the part that you quoted. Now that I have drawn your attention to it, we can leave Reading Comprehension 101 behind us. > In any case, the real point here is the following statement from > 2.2.2, which says that contrib is for "wrapper packages or other sorts > of free accessories for non-free programs." Since ndiswrapper's main purpose is to create a kernel API to allow drivers designed for a different API to communicate with the kernel, I don't think this counts as a wrapper. ndiswrapper does what it sets out to do, whether or not any software (free or not) uses that API. > So the question is, is ndiswrapper for free programs, or only for > non-free programs? No, the question is, is ndiswrapper a functionally complete program? Other pieces of software, both free and non-free, are free to use it in order to run, but I can't imagine that makes any difference to the freeness of ndiswrapper. > But I don't know; everyone seems to be dancing around the actual > question: are there any free drivers for which ndiswrapper is useful? This is an irrelevant question, which is why you're not getting an answer you're happy with. > Moreover, the statements in 2.2.1 and 2.2.2 are *exemplars*, not final > absolute standards. Remember, Policy is not a foundation document. We left this class earlier, you may remember. > But rather than argue about what *might* be so, geez, can *somebody* > PLEASE, just answer the factual question? Yes. Non-free drivers need ndiswrapper. ndiswrapper does not need non-free drivers. There is no dependency. Does that help? -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- | ,''`. Stephen Gran | | : :' : sgran@debian.org | | `. `' Debian user, admin, and developer | | `- http://www.debian.org | -----------------------------------------------------------------
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