Removal of non-free etc.
Hi all,
I've just waded through 250+ posts. I'm a developer and also an
active Debian user at work. I work with a bunch of programmers for
Windows/Linux/Solaris - I'm their tech. supprort guy, so I get to
do some sysadmin. work, building disks, fixing faulty hardware -
the works.
If I get the choice of Linux, I install Debian - it's on about 7
out of 150 machines now. Another 2 have Red Hat, one has Corel,
we've a diehard Slackware user - and so on.
Attitudes vary: I've just built an internet machine and a firewall.
My boss - an NT programmer - wanted me to only install from a boxed
set "silver disks - no gold CD's allowed here" When I tried to reason
that the latest "boxed set" was the O'Reilly/VA/SGI set from Sept. 99
and that I'd need to do a huge update to get to reasonably current AND
that I'd have to FTP Netscape - he blew up. [Four gold CD's later, I'd
saved a 200M download and built two machines in a day.] "What do you
mean Netscape isn't free"
Debian quality is outstanding - one of our guys installed Corel -
root can run Netscape by design regardless of security issues.
Debian support is good - another installed Mandrake 6.5 and discovered
to his cost that they only support the latest and greatest - he downlaoded
mamy MB of software over the net only to discover that it was for version
7.0. Apt won't let you do that.
Another insisted I install RedHat because it had a GUI to do the network
config. and he couldn't be bothered to spend 1/2 hour learning ifconfig
amd manually editing files.
All these guys are pragmatic - they just want it to work. Technical
excellence doesn't cut ice with them (though one of the Solaris guys
said "We use Linux when we can because you can do so much more with it")
DFSG / Social Contract concerns don't matter. This is the real world - and
it's a world in which Debian excels.
I know that Debian main is _Debian_ and that the rest isn't part of the
distribution - I've got posts from the last time this was raised when RMS
got fairly involved.
Contrib / non-US / non-free are all restricted for use in some way.
Leaving aside the mention of DFSG-freeness for tne moment - put a
bloody big README on the top level of the FTP mirror and on the Web
site and its mirrors. "Debian's distribution of GNU Linux is to
be found in the subdirectories marked /main. Any other software
packaged as .deb format is not to be regarded as forming part of
the Debian distribution but is provided as ancillary to that distribution.
The packages not in the Debian main distribution may be subject to restrictions on use/licensing or export." or something of that sort.
Create a directory called RESTRICTED and branch contrib / non-free / noon-US from under it.It would be nice to implement package pools for woody and to seek
cooperation with Corel / Stormix to include their patches/non-free parts in appropriate subdirectories in this structure. It would certainly help people moving
from Stormix/Corel to Debian and make it clear to us how these differ from Debian proper. [Stormix admit that their current beta is following potato closely for example - Storm Rain is basically slink with current patches and security fixes applied.]
Apropos the "point users at suitable free alternatives" school of thought.
If they insist on Netscape / xv they will install it if available. If not
they'll dump Debian. Non-free will wither on the vine - eventually - but
its use now is a means to an end.
Now can we release potato please - I need a packaged boxed set to please
my bosses. Although the test cycle one silver CD's are a start, they
won't be happy until I can put in a purchase order to an "Official Debian"
supplier.
Thanks for all,
Andy
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