On Sat, Jun 10, 2000 at 02:42:53PM -0500, John Goerzen wrote:
> Martin Keegan <mk270@cam.ac.uk> writes:
[Crosspost & followup to -project]
> > Debian's apt-get is complicit in making software a LOT easier to discover
> > and install. That is also makes non-free software a lot easier to install
> > seems to have caused quite a few ructions.
> The fact that apt makes it easy is one reason that the proposal can go
> forth. All people need to do is update their sources.list files and
> things will still work.
Debian does more than provide FTP archive space for software. If all we
did was sling some stuff in the archive and call it a release every so
often then you'd be right - simply twiddling your apt configuration
would be enough. We do more than that. We keep everything together, we
provide a common bug tracking system and we have a set of standards for
our packages. Creating a repository is the trivial bit.
> You say it "injures" users but you don't say how. You say it injures
> the Free Software community because of an "impoverished" Debian
> system, and yet the Debian system would not change. You also fail to
Debian is more than just a FTP archive.
> recognize that users of the Debian system do not necessarily use
> non-free, as it is not a part of the Debian system. And you fail to
> recognize that getting non-free software elsewhere is trivially.
It's not the avalibility that's the problem. It's all the stuff that
goes into creating and maintaining the packages. Not everyone wants or
needs to use non-free, but the people who do may well end up noticing a
drop in quality. Like it or not this will reflect upon Debian.
--
Mark Brown mailto:broonie@tardis.ed.ac.uk (Trying to avoid grumpiness)
http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~broonie/
EUFS http://www.eusa.ed.ac.uk/societies/filmsoc/
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