Re: My quite ordinary comment about Re: GR to remove non-free...

[Rogerio Brito <rbrito@iname.com>]

On Jun 08 2000, eric a . Farris wrote:
> but, i have been playing around a bit with the new Mandrake 7.1, and
> it sure is sweet...

	I think that I have a question: is there any standard or
	recommended way to upgrade an RPM-based system in way more or
	less similar to Debian's apt-get?

	I (and some of my friends) depend on quite a considerable
	quantity of non-free packages. :-(

	If that RPM upgrade system is possible/easy/convenient, then
	it would be an alternative to Debian if this non-free thing
	gets in the way (let's hope it does not).

	I think that removing non-free from Debian is a bad move right
	now, especially since non-free software provides functionality
	that free software doesn't. In the future, when there are more
	alternatives, it may be reasonable (and even encouraged) to
	remove non-free from Debian. But I think that now is not the
	appropriate time.


	Thanks in advance for any help to my question, Roger...

P.S.: When I wrote about non-free software providing functionality not
present in free software, I was thinking mostly (but not exclusively)
of basic tasks like browsing the web.
-- 
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  Rogerio Brito - rbrito@iname.com - http://www.ime.usp.br/~rbrito/
     Nectar homepage: http://www.linux.ime.usp.br/~rbrito/nectar/
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