Poll results: User views on the FDL issue

[Brian Nelson <pyro@debian.org>]

I recently conducted a poll on debian-user to get some input from users
about the FDL issue.  The results are available here:

  http://people.debian.org/~pyro/fdl_poll_results.txt

And the full mail log is available here:

  http://people.debian.org/~pyro/fdl_poll.mail

Here's a summary:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Is it acceptable for Debian to permanently remove most FDL documents
so that they are no longer available on Debian mirrors or on Debian CDs?

29 responses

Yes:         3  10.3%
No:         26  89.7%
Don't know:  0   0.0%

My comment: Evidently, there is a very strong demand for packaged
documentation.  It is *not* OK to simply remove the documentation, as
what happened with the autoconf documentation earlier this year.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Is it acceptable if all FDL documents were moved to non-free so that
they could still be downloaded from Debian mirrors?  Note that they
still would not appear on most Debian CDs.

28 responses

Yes:        16  57.1%
No:         11  39.3%
Don't know:  1   3.6%

My comment: Having documentation still available in non-free is OK with
the majority of the respondents, though many stipulated that it was only
acceptable as a last resort (i.e. they preferred keeping it all in
main).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Should Debian allow documents without invariant sections in main, and
only remove/move-to-non-free those with invariant sections?

28 responses

Yes:        10  35.7%
No:         11  39.3%
Don't know:  7  25.0%

My comment: Nothing conclusive here.  Several who responded with "No"
clarified that they believed that all documentation should be kept in
main, and others clarified that they felt all of it belongs in non-free.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Should Debian modify the Social Contract and/or Debian Free Software
Guidelines[1] to allow all FDL documents to remain in the main archive
and appear on Debian CDs?

  [1] http://www.debian.org/social_contract

28 responses

Yes:         8  28.6%
No:          9  32.1%
Don't know: 11  39.3%
------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Is Debian making a big deal out of a minor issue?  Should Debian be
focusing more on creating a usable operating system and less on worrying
about licensing issues?

30 responses

Yes:        18  60.0%
No:          9  30.0%
Don't know:  3  10.0%

My comment: That pretty much speaks for itself.  A couple clarified that
though license issues were important in general, they felt this
particular issue was overblown.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

I strongly suggest reading the mail log, since many of the full
responses are more interesting than the overall results.

Thanks to all those who responded.

-- 
Society is never going to make any progress until we all learn to
pretend to like each other.