Re: A Compromise Proposal on GR: Remove non-free

[John Goerzen <jgoerzen@complete.org>]

grendel@vip.net.pl (Marek Habersack) writes:

> That would be acceptable, but I see just two points. First is a technical
> one:
> 
>  - if a package is fetched from a site outside of the Debian control, the
>    Debian project cannot guarantee the quality of service, because it cannot
>    guarantee the availability of exactly that version of the software in
>    question. It may well happen that the software will have been released in
>    a new version, with the older one removed from the archives, while the
>    Debian package still needs the older one. This, of course, applies to the
>    network installation (but probably at least half of Debian installations
>    is done off the net)

This is a question.  It can be partially remedied with wildcards.  You
might note that FreeBSD's ports system works in this way, and that is
the primary way that they distribute packages not part of the standard
system (which is much smaller than ours).

> Second is political (and is my pure assumption):
> 
>  - the proponents of removal of the non-free software will probably argue
>    that if your proposal is accepted, the non-free software would still be
>    associated with Debian...

I have already indicated that this solution would be acceptable to me.