(sorry for those of you receiving this twice: I mistakenly sent it to -devel!) I know I'm reviving a long-time discussion, but here is a thought I just had. On debian-italian@ there's a thread [1] with people sponsoring gNewSense, goBuntu and the such, claiming they're "real free software", and others that say that "a world without non-free wouldn't be possible, at this historical moment". I've replied linking to GR "Handling source-less firmware in the Linux kernel" (2006/07) [2] and the Social Contract [3], citing the winning resolution and point 5 of the Social Contract: ---8<--- 5. Works that do not meet our free software standards We acknowledge that some of our users require the use of works that do not conform to the Debian Free Software Guidelines. We have created "contrib" and "non-free" areas in our archive for these works. The packages in these areas are not part of the Debian system, although they have been configured for use with Debian. We encourage CD manufacturers to read the licenses of the packages in these areas and determine if they can distribute the packages on their CDs. Thus, although non-free works are not a part of Debian, we support their use and provide infrastructure for non-free packages (such as our bug tracking system and mailing lists). --->8--- What really triggered my attention was this part: "Thus, although non-free works are not a part of Debian, we *SUPPORT* *THEIR* *USE* and provide infrastructure for non-free packages (such as our bug tracking system and mailing lists)." Thus, are we supporting non-free? I've always believed (read it somewhere, maybe a GR, or some thread on -devel, or just inferred from the above point, can't really say what, sorry) that we're just providing *some* infrastructure to non-free (such as BTS and lists.d.o), but not others (like buildds, for example, or security updates). All this just to support *our* *users*, not non-free itself. Am I wrong? Please don't take this as a provoking mail, I'm in NM, and God knows how many times I've read the Social Contract (and DFSG, and DMUP, and $policy) before applying :)... Did I miss something? Kind regards, David [1] http://lists.debian.org/debian-italian/2008/09/msg00448.html [2] http://www.debian.org/vote/2006/vote_007 [3] http://www.debian.org/social_contract -- . ''`. Debian maintainer | http://wiki.debian.org/DavidPaleino : :' : Linuxer #334216 --|-- http://www.hanskalabs.net/ `. `'` GPG: 1392B174 ----|---- http://snipr.com/qa_page `- 2BAB C625 4E66 E7B8 450A C3E1 E6AA 9017 1392 B174
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