Dne, 27. 04. 2011 10:47:43 je sdc napisal(a):
Greetings, I was reading FSF distro review and I was shocked to see that Debian isn't actually free software. FSF said that they are making a big progress(this happened when they removed the blobs from the kernel) butstill isn't free software because users have the option to installproprietary software from debian's server and this is a bit confusing forbeginners in this free software world.My beginner question is, why doesn't Debian remove the proprietary softwarehosted on it's servers? Don't they want to follow the FSF word? Thanks!
Debian is a fairly complex infrastructure. There is a free as in freedom subset provided in the form of Debian's "main" software repository -- we could call it the "hard core" of Debian. This is the only software repository that is included in a default Debian installation; you must explicitly and intentionally enable other repositories to get "non-free" software. But even the so-called "non-free"software must still comply with the Debian Free Software Guidelines in order to be provided by Debian; and even so, it's not part of Debian strictly speaking, it's just provided as an additional service to Debian users at large.
Seems a quite reasonable policy to me. Of course, we all wish we could run free software ponly on our machines, but the time doesn't seem ripe for that. Most machines have proprietary BIOSes, as do many add-in cards, even hard disks have a non-free firmware down deep inside. So it's pretty hard to draw a line, even on a personal, user level. What about our cars? They all have quite powerful computers built in now to make them work at all -- running strictly proprietary software, of course. Our fridges and washing mashines -- ditto. Our cell phones, mp3 players, cameras, media centers, TV sets -- ditto.
That said, one has the option to pick a "more free" distribution if they deem strict Debian (i.e. Debian as such, without the contrib and non-free repositories) is not free enough.
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