On Sun, Aug 31, 2003 at 10:22:33PM -0400, Richard Stallman wrote: > I am the one in the FSF who has made statements about Debian and > non-free software, and the statements I have made are true as far as I > know. If you think anything I said is not true, please show me the > statement and the relevant facts. If something I said is incorrect, I > will change it. This is a bit of tangent, but your remarks here reminded me of a story I read recently. http://www.ofb.biz/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=260 RMS provided us with this update on GNU/LinEx: The developers told me that GNU/LinEx included only free software, but after this interview was published various people have checked it and found non-free programs in it. I therefore cannot recommend GNU/LinEx at present. I hope that this problem will be corrected. I have seven questions for you based on this episode: * Wasn't it Debian developers who brought the non-free components of GNU/LinEx to your attention? * Shouldn't you familiarize yourself better with a product before endorsing it (than you did with GNU/LinEx)? * What distribution do you recommend today, given that GNU/LinEx doesn't even segregate non-free into a separate distribution as Debian does? * Have you stopped endorsing Debian GNU/Linux because we're giving you static about the GNU FDL? * If Debian stopped distributing non-free software from its mirror network (and made no mention of it during its install process, and so forth), would you begin endorsing Debian again? * Is your endorsement of Debian GNU/Linux more contingent upon our shipping GNU Manuals in "main" than it is upon our ceasing to distribute non-free software in "non-free"? * Isn't it reasonable, in the absence of any statements from you to the contrary, for people to assume that the answer to the preceding question is "yes", given that GNU/LinEx doesn't distinguish between free and non-free software anymore than most distributions do, and since the status quo hasn't actually changed in the distribution market, Debian hasn't actually done anything *except* challenge the freeness of GNU FDL to lose your endorsement? -- G. Branden Robinson | "There is no gravity in space." Debian GNU/Linux | "Then how could astronauts walk branden@debian.org | around on the Moon?" http://people.debian.org/~branden/ | "Because they wore heavy boots."
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