Re: Report from the Bug Squashing Party in Salzburg
]] Lars Wirzenius
> The other aspect, however, is that Hangout and Skype are not free.
> It is not unacceptable for those developing Debian to use non-free
> software, or non-free services, but it gets problematic if it's
> the common case, or if it is advocated. We, as a project, value
> software freedome, and if we choose tools that are not free, we
> are not living up to our values as a project.
It's all about perspective, though. We use free tools where we can, and
we try to build free tools where it makes sense. I don't see anybody
suggesting that we stop having debconf because the only way to get there
for most people is to use non-free software (the server side software
that books your train or plane ticket is not free, nor is the software
that runs your car, the coach that gets you to the airport and the
airplane itself).
The world isn't black and white, it's all about shades of gray and we're
collectively pushing towards the bright end and we have come a long way
already.
> To find out if a service like this is actually useful for distributed
> bug squashing, by all means, let's use the proprietary services. Then
> we can find or make the free software to do it with freedom.
Indeed.
--
Tollef Fog Heen
UNIX is user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are
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