Re: let's be practical [Re: Software in main etc.]
[Thanks, Havoc. You've got a great sense of direction.]
>>>>> Havoc Pennington writes:
HP> 1. Decide what it is you are trying to achieve.
Total independence from non-free software.
HP> What *actual practical benefit* can be shown to exist *in a
HP> predictable, relatively short timeframe*, *when speaking to the
HP> intended audience*.
No software author will be able to hold us hostage.
HP> 2. Decide what the possible courses of action are.
HP> Given your goals, what steps could be taken to move toward them?
1) Add the following to Debian policy:
The `pure' distribution is reserved for software which is fully
functional even if installed on a machine that exchanges no
information whatsoever with non-free software.
2) Modify dinstall so that packages with `Section: pure/SUBSEC' are
installed into `main/SUBSEC', with a symlink made to them from
`pure/SUBSEC'.
3) Change lintian so that `pure/*' is accepted as a valid Section.
4) Educate Debian maintainers about the benefits of declaring their
package `pure'.
HP> 3. Evaluate the courses of action. What possible costs and
HP> benefits come from each course of action, and what is the
HP> probability that each cost and benefit will actually come
HP> about.
Cost 1: policy has to be relaxed to allow contributions to pure. This
is trivial.
Cost 2: dinstall has to be changed. This is a low cost, since James
Troup has shown interest in the idea, and I believe he has the
authority to make such a change. It is also a fairly trivial change.
Cost 3: lintian has to be changed. This should be a trivial change.
Cost 4: word of pure needs to spread to all maintainers. This is
easy, as more and more Debian maintainers start using it, and filing
wishlist bugs against packages they use that qualify for `pure', but
aren't currently in it.
Benefits: `pure' will make it easy for Debian users to participate in
a boycott of all non-free software. This will help channel support
towards 100% free projects, rather than ones which benefit non-free
software producers.
HP> 4. Pick the best plan.
I'm presenting only one plan, which I think is the best one.
--
Gordon Matzigkeit <gord@fig.org> //\ I'm a FIG (http://www.fig.org/)
Committed to freedom and diversity \// I use GNU (http://www.gnu.org/)
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