Re: Software in main that is throughly useless without non-free software

[Peter S Galbraith <GalbraithP@dfo-mpo.gc.ca>]

Gordon Matzigkeit wrote:

> [Note: I'm not advocating tossing packages out of `main', I'm arguing
> that we should make a symlinked-to-`main' distro called `pure'.  See
> my proposal.]
> 
> >>>>> Karl M Hegbloom writes:
> 
>  KMH>  We've accepted that the Linux kernel itself can go into [pure],
>  KMH> even though it's got support for non-freed proprietary
>  KMH> filesystems.
> 
> Yes, because it can also read and write free filesystems, so it
> doesn't *require* a non-freed filesystem to be useful.
>
>  KMH>  So why not a reader for Word documents?
> 
> Only if the reader can also read documents produced by software found
> in `main'.  Otherwise, that reader *requires* non-main software (MS
> Word) in order to be useful.

So word2x could add a pager for plain ASCII and comply with pure,
because it doesn't *require* a non-free document to be useful.
i.e. add unrelated functionality that complies with `pure'.

If you don't agree with this, then all kernel drivers that read
non-free filesystems would have to be packaged out of the kernel.
Anything else will lead to inconsistent treatment of packages
(like word2x).
 

Peter Galbraith <psg@debian.org>