Re: Software in main that is throughly useless without non-free software
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.]
You are talking about separating out main because of moral reasons, not
technical reasons like the one behind contrib's creation in the first
place, and I don't see a need for it.
> 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.
This is not a technical reason, it is a moral reason.
It also assumes the person who wants to read the document is on the same
computer, and is in fact the same person as the person who wrote the
document.
For most users of word document readers, this is not the case, they just
want to read that email attachment that Joe Random sent them.
I'm not saying moral reasons are to be disqualified - moral reasons are
why we have the DFSG and main/non-free separation. I'm saying the reason
contrib exists is technical, and we should keep that in mind.
You'll also find most people are against another section for any reason (see
debian-devel archives last year regarding the 'cd-ok' section flame war).
--
Robert Woodcock - rcw@debian.org
"Now we'll have to kill you." -- Linus Torvalds
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