Re: Debian and Non-Free Services
On 15523 March 1977, Sam Hartman wrote:
Subject: Free Software Needs Free Tools
I think the subject does not fit the content. Its more like "Forbid DDs
to use certain services".
No Debian contributor should be expected or encouraged, when working to
improve Debian, to use non-free tools. This includes proprietary web
services. We will ensure this, insofar as it is within Debian's
collective control.
For example, Vcs-Git fields in source packages must not refer to
proprietary git code management systems. Non-Debian services are
acceptable here so long as they are principally Free Software.
We encourage all our upstreams to use Free/Libre tools.
We recognise that metadata in Debian which describes the behaviour of
those outside our community, for example fields which refer to upstream
source management systems, may (in order to be accurate) still need to
refer to proprietary systems.
I think that, should this pass, it has negative effects for Debian, not
positive ones.
While we should clearly NOT encourage the use of things like github, the
only thing we IMO should forbid is where it actually hurts us as a
project. Say, it really doesnt matter if i git clone
github.com/something to get what the maintainer is working on right now
- the one "official" source for the Debian package is whats in the
archive - but if the maintainer wants to use GitHub issues as their
mainplace for bug tracking and not the BTS, thats bad. So if anything,
we should forbid such things (as we discourage anyways already).
Difference IMO is where the main, authorative, place for something is.
source in git is just some source in git, the authorative one for Debian
is the upload. You can easily put an NMU on top (or take over package)
While for bugs its the BTS, not some whatever system somewhere.
--
bye, Joerg
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