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Re: An ammendment (Re: Formal CFV: General Resolution to Abolish Non-Free)



On Sat, Jun 10, 2000 at 03:30:04PM -0500, John Goerzen wrote:
> Anthony Towns <aj@azure.humbug.org.au> writes:
> >   1) the Debian project continues to acknowledge the utility of providing
> >      non-free software for it users.
> What do we need a GR for this?  What makes you think that there is
> utility in us actually providing it?

In the absence of your resolution, I don't believe we would've needed it;
but I think given the existing resolution, that it's appropriate to have
an alternative that addresses some of the problems you raise, without the
changes to the social contract you propose.

> >   4) noting that the Debian project already distributes various other
> >      collections of unofficial packages, the project endorses a move to
> >      specifically collect the various other add-on components such as
> >      "experimental", "orphaned", "non-free" and "contrib" and to clearly
> >      separate these from the "main" collection.
> Vague.  Are they not clearly separated already?  If not, then you will
> require an amendment to the social contract in all likelihood.

I don't see why: the social contract states that there are "contrib" and
"non-free" areas in the archive, changing this from:

	dists/ woody/
		main
		contrib
		non-free

to	dists/woody/
		main
		add-on/
			contrib
			non-free
			experimental
			orphaned
			ipv6
			gnome-helix
			kde

wouldn't alter that, while it would collect the existing add-on
collections, and clearly separate them from the main collection.

As further implementation details, I'd expect a README in each of the
add-on directories describing why the packages therein aren't in main.
Things like "Packages in this collection cannot be installed without
other packages which are not able to be included in the main archive",
or "Packages in this collection seem likely to destroy your system",
or "Packages in this collection may not network correctly, but they do
have some support for IPv6", or "Packages in this collection generally
may not be distributed as pre-compiled binaries due to...".

The three extra add-on collections listed above (ipv6, gnome-helix,
and kde) are purely hypothetical at this point, of course.

Cheers,
aj

-- 
Anthony Towns <aj@humbug.org.au> <http://azure.humbug.org.au/~aj/>
I don't speak for anyone save myself. GPG encrypted mail preferred.

  ``We reject: kings, presidents, and voting.
                 We believe in: rough consensus and working code.''
                                      -- Dave Clark

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