Re: weekly policy summary
Hi,
>>"DGMS" == Davide G M Salvetti <salve@debian.org> writes:
DGMS> ***** MS => Manoj Srivastava
MS> There is a difference between unmet suggests and depends: in the
MS> former case, the packages install, and should work, in the latter
MS> case the packages are broken.
DGMS> Yes, I do know.
DGMS> However the point I was trying to make still remains, I think: if we
DGMS> have not yet reached consensus on free packages suggesting non-free
DGMS> ones, we should do so and close this issue.
If only it were as simple as that. This issue has been brought
up on the lists, and, IIRC, it was quite controversial.
DGMS> My vote is for free packages not being allowed to reference
DGMS> non-free packages in any way, neither Recommends or Depends nor
DGMS> Suggests.
I am not comfortable with that, sorry.
DGMS> BTW, I'd go even further: I'd suggest every free package maintainer
DGMS> not to mention non-free software at all in our descriptions, scripts,
DGMS> and so on. I'm a bit disappointed noting a lot of our packages out
DGMS> there that talk about one commercial product or another in the Debian
DGMS> diffs.
I am even less comfortable with this.
DGMS> This is maybe an extremist position, but I know I'm not the
DGMS> only one thinking this way among debianers.
Extremist positions do not do well to drive consensus. I thik
this issue may well be too controversial for us to deal with in this
forum.
We have to strike a balance between the good to the community
done by freeing software, and catering to the needs of our users by
providing a system that is the most capable out there, and
recognozing that some of our users do use software that does not meet
our guidelines. I think allowing suggestions in fee software is
condusive to those goal, and totally in line with those sentiments.
Since we do recognize that some users have to sue software
that may be non free, and we have committed to support our users who
develop and run non-free software on Debian, we can do no less.
manoj
amazed to be arguing on the opposite side for once
--
"Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you may work."
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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