On Mon, May 03, 1999 at 12:25:21PM -0700, Chris Waters wrote: > > There is NOTHING on your system that is non-free which icq depends on to > > run, is there? > > This is the point under contention. Does it matter whether a required > non-free component is on your system? If a package *requires* a > non-free server, should that package go in contrib? (My personal > feeling is yes, but I don't feel strongly about it.) No software which connects over tcp requires any software at the other end. If you have documentation of the protocol used you don't require any particular server, free of not. This has been pointed out. > > Or is the fact that you're probably going to use the main > > icq server with it like everyone else good enough to make it only contrib > > worthy? > > "Probably" doesn't matter. Can or can't matters. See above. > > Does it matter that there are other projects out there (at least > > one with working (if you call an alpha "working") code) which could be > > used in place of the server? > > It matters very much. *IF* a free server is available (and yes, alpha > is ok), then the client would not have to go into contrib under *any* > circumstances (i.e. no matter what we rule on the main point above). > > As a vaguely related example, there was a patch going around, a few > years back, to link some GNU package with a non-free library. RMS > objected in the *strongest* terms. After much heated debate, someone > came out with a *barely*-functioning free replacement library. That > was enough to end the debate, despite the fact that nobody was > actually planning to use the free library. Quality of implementation > is not an issue, nor is popularity. I wouldn't have ended the debate there. Either the person whose code was getting used is satisfied that their code isn't getting used with something non-free or they're not. If they're not, a half-hearted "shut up and go away" measure isn't good enough IMNSHO. > So, if what you say is true (there's a free alpha-quality ICQ server > around), then ICQ clients can go in main under any circumstances. > Might even be nice to package up the server (at least for > projects/experimental). Someone else can do it if they want. I dispise icq. => you might get me on a free aim-type server, but I don't know of one of those yet and I wouldn't use a tk-based client anyway. I'm not that despirate! -- Joseph Carter <knghtbrd@debian.org> Debian GNU/Linux developer PGP: E8D68481E3A8BB77 8EE22996C9445FBE The Source Comes First! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- <Oryn> anyone know if there is a version of dpkg for redhat?
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