On Wed, 30 Oct 2013 23:35:37 +1100
Charlie <ariestao@skymesh.com.au> wrote:
On Wed, 30 Oct 2013 07:40:27 -0400 "Celejar celejar@gmail.com" sent
this:
>The point here is that the FSF, who you consider "the right
kind of nuts", *discourages* you from using Debian.
Celejar
Not me. That might be your interpretation, it isn't mine.
Not sure what you mean, but if you're claiming that the FSF doesn't
discourage one from using Debian, here's what it says:
Explaining Why We Don't Endorse Other Systems
We're often asked why we don't endorse a particular system—usually a
popular GNU/Linux distribution. The short answer to that question is
that they don't follow the free system distribution guidelines. But
since it isn't always obvious how a particular system fails to follow
the guidelines, this list gives more information about the problems of
certain well-known nonfree system distros. ...
Here is a list of some popular nonfree GNU/Linux distributions in
alphabetical order, with brief notes about how they fall short. ...
Debian GNU/Linux
Debian's Social Contract states the goal of making Debian entirely free
software, and Debian conscientiously keeps nonfree software out of the
official Debian system. However, Debian also provides a repository of
nonfree software. According to the project, this software is “not part
of the Debian system,” but the repository is hosted on many of the
project's main servers, and people can readily learn about these
nonfree packages by browsing Debian's online package database.
There is also a “contrib” repository; its packages are free, but some
of them exist to load separately distributed proprietary programs. This
too is not thoroughly separated from the main Debian distribution.
Previous releases of Debian included nonfree blobs with Linux, the
kernel. With the release of Debian 6.0 (“squeeze”) in February 2011,
these blobs have been moved out of the main distribution to separate
packages in the nonfree repository. However, the problem partly
remains: the installer in some cases recommends these nonfree firmware
files for the peripherals on the machine.
http://www.gnu.org/distros/common-distros.html
I would say that the repeated assertions of 'problems' with Debian and
the explanation that it doesn't "follow the guidelines" and "falls
short" constitutes discouragement.
Charlie
Celejar