Re: Bug#181493: SUN RPC code is DFSG-free
On Wednesday, Sep 10, 2003, at 16:35 US/Eastern, Wouter Verhelst wrote:
Is it? Propreitary software can indeed provide value, and is
often useful to people -- which is why the company is in
business. And yet, we have coalesced a volunteer effort around the
premise that libre software is better.
Do you mean to say that the one and only property about Debian we
should
be proud of is the fact that it consist of "100% free software"?
I doubt it. He didn't say that.
Do you mean to say that the one and only goal we should pursue is to
make, and keep, Debian "100% free software"?
I doubt it. He (once again) didn't say that. He said that we must keep
Debian 100% free software --- just like our social contract says.
I passed the philosophy section of the NM process, because I agreed
that
our users and free software are equally important. [....] I think this
is one such occasion.
Please explain how to reconcile including non-free software in Debian
(for the good of the children^W^Wour users) with clause 1 of the Social
Contract.
I agree; however, this is about more than just whether the RPC code is
free or not. If that weren't the case, I wouldn't be part of this
thread.
It *should* just be about if the code is free or not; that is what
Clause 1 says.
Oh, wait, I get it. You're saying that the *only* thing we should care
about is whether our software is free. All the rest is secondary, not
even worth considering.
No. There are certainly other requirements for software to be in
Debian, but if the software is not free, it can't be in Debian. So says
the first clause of the Social Contract.
If
that means to ship with non-free code in a core part of our
distribution, then so be it.
Our users are our co-first priority. However, that can't override our
_requirements_ which include producing a distribution that is "entirely
free software" as well as "never [making Debian] depend on an item of
non-free software."
We must satisfy our priorities without violating our Social Contract.
[ Manoj: I apologize if you get two copies of this; I just copied the
OP's cc field. ]
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