Re: Updates

Hi Shirish,

@Vipin, if you have any expertise or want to use this opportunity to
explore any aspect of Debian, be it Debian-Installer (D-I), Debian
infrastructure, Debian security or any of the million odd things that
make up Debian and fascinates you, you are welcome to propose that and
we can take that. Nobody is stopping you from doing that.

I am no expert, just a loyal user for few years now, personally and professionally.

There are a lot of things that fascinates me but my reasons for using Debian

and sticking to it are philosophical. I would not be talking on that. As far as

technical aspects are considered, I haven't yet thought of anything. If I come up

with something, I sure would put up a proposal.

It's only because we have not much Debian expertise who are taking
part and going to share topics on Debian packaging and perhaps
keysigning (if we do that) that we decided to open it for non-Debian
talks as well.

Is it because we trying to fill in empty slots? I do not see why having fewer

talks is an issue, if we have not enough people who can talk on the subject.

Yes we do not have a lots of people with expertise or the willingness to do

this and I sincerely appreciate what you guys are doing. Having said that,

I do not understand what we are trying to achieve by calling this event

'Mini DebConf' and it not being Debian centric. Giving it a generic name

which also includes a Debian track is perfectly fine, but when you call it

'Mini DebConf', you are setting the expectations wrong.

I would any day pick a small room with enthusiasts and interested folks

hacking on Debian in one corner over a big event with hundreds of people

with minimal Debian.

Also, I do not agree with the "Its all free software and Debian supports Free

software, so free software talks are fine" argument. Tomorrow if I create

my own OS with the Linux kernel and call it Debian, is it acceptable?

Its not because:

1) Its not the right thing to do because its not 'Debian'.

2) Its a trademark[1] and I am not legally allowed to do it.

There may not be registered trademarks for the names 'Debconf' and

'Mini DebConf' so legally we are fine with it but is it the right thing

to do because there is nothing legally preventing us from doing so?

In case you are still not convinced, have at look at other Mini DebConf's

organized around the world, have a look into the kind of talks they have

had, compare it to this list and see if you can see any resemblance.

[1] : https://www.debian.org/trademark

Regards,
Vipin