Re: Software in main that is throughly useless without non-free software
Hi,
BTW, if we are deciding to throw out free software cause it is
useless, I vote we throw out vi, which is perfectly useless with
*any* amount of non-free software ;-)
To be more serious, I think deciding to throw software out of
debian on merit or utility (or purity -- remember that one?) is
starting down a slippery slope.
If it requires non-free software to compile, or install, that
is one thing. enabling a free machine to talk to the big, bad,
non-free world out there is not. It enables us to be a more, umm,
_capable_, part of that world until we have free alternatives to the
components we are missing.
Rome was not built in a day. All non-free servers need not be
replaced in one either. A client is a good start.
Pissing off people who are attempting to create free software
in a largely proprietary world and castigating them because they did
not do a complete job hurts the community.
Remember, GNU started with a not-yet-so-good compiler running
on a proprietary system.
manoj
who thinks people oftern lose sight of the big picture
--
"It is tempting to take the easy political path ... to get peace at
any price now, even though I know that a peace of humiliation for the
United States would lead to a bigger war or surrender later." Richard
M. Nixon, April 30, 1970
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/>
Key C7261095 fingerprint = CB D9 F4 12 68 07 E4 05 CC 2D 27 12 1D F5 E8 6E
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