On Mon, Nov 26, 2007 at 03:23:03PM +0100, Simon Josefsson wrote: > I have chosen not to apply as debian developer at this point because I > have hesitations about being a "full" member of an organization that > help non-free software; through the contrib/non-free sections, > shipping non-free firmware and the like. Still, the amount of useful > contributions debian makes to the free software community is > significant, and the alternatives to debian are usually even less free > or too insignificant. So I feel comfortable helping debian where I > can. There is a theory that supporting non-free software brings more users to free software, who may then be convinced about the philosophy behind free software. Of course there is another theory that supporting non-free software is in the way of convincing people, because you sort of tell them that "it's ok to use non-free software". Both theories are probably true, and the effects of course work against each other. I'm very happy that Debian clearly separates main from the rest, so I can easily use only free software with it. If other people want to use non-free software, I am not going to stop them (although I am advising them to stop ;-) ). The Social Contract doesn't really say more than that: we must not obstruct other people when they want to work with non-free software. As you apply for DM, you also accept to agree with that, btw. I'm not saying you should apply to become a DD. It's your choice if you want that. But I think Debian has a very good way to deal with non-free software: allow people who want to work on it to do what they want, while making it easy to not see it at all. It allows supporters of both theories to do things their way. Thanks, Bas -- I encourage people to send encrypted e-mail (see http://www.gnupg.org). If you have problems reading my e-mail, use a better reader. Please send the central message of e-mails as plain text in the message body, not as HTML and definitely not as MS Word. Please do not use the MS Word format for attachments either. For more information, see http://pcbcn10.phys.rug.nl/e-mail.html
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