Re: Debian's Linux kernel continues to regress on freedom
On Wed, 12 Sep 2007 12:42:56 +0300, Riku Voipio <riku.voipio@iki.fi> said:
> On Wed, Sep 12, 2007 at 12:39:05AM -0400, Nathanael Nerode wrote:
>> Non-free material is being included in main for the benefit of
>> *precisely zero* users. There's no two ways about this: this is a
>> Social Contract violation.
> Kernel has 736[1] open bugs, including ones that corrupt data and make
> other packages fail to build. All but one affect actual users.
> Does the Social Contract really mandate that we should fix bugs
> affecting 0 users before dealing with bugs that actually degrade the
> user experience?
I think you are framing the question in a biased manner. The
inclusion of non-free software often does not directly impair
operations or degrade utility for most users -- they often are not
concerned about exercising the freedoms that are being curtailed. But
we have common cause in promoting free software, we acknowledge that
non-free software is harmful, and we relegate it to a a repository that
is not part of Debian, but it exists for users who want the
functionality and do not care about the freedom aspect.
So, in my opinion, getting rid of the non-fee material, and
actually conforming to our social contract is indeed worth more than
fixing these other bugs -- how many of those are release critical, as
this bob-free material issue is?
There is also the factor of the social contract being our given
word, and people trusting us -- if we can not be expected to even try
to keep our word on the social contract, what _can_ we be trusted with?
> If our priority really is users, we should fix those 735 bugreports
> first. And from the recent linux-2.6 uploads it seems that indeed
> kernel team gives priority to users.
Actually, given the premise that we are all for liberation of
software, and that non-free software harms the users; putting users
first means we get rid of things in Debian that are non free.
manoj
who should not be wasting time reading mailing list posts
--
I believe in making the world safe for our children, but not our
children's children, because I don't think children should be having
sex.
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@acm.org> <http://www.golden-gryphon.com/>
1024D/BF24424C print 4966 F272 D093 B493 410B 924B 21BA DABB BF24 424C
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