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Re: deregulate/purge "non-free"; merge "contrib" & "main"



Hi,

        This would violate the social contract. People wanting to do
  this are free to derive a ``pure'' distribution based on Debian that
  does not include anything they find morally objectionable.

        manoj

>>"Will" == Will Lowe <harpo@UDel.Edu> writes:

 Will> Here's my reasoning:
 Will> 	Nonfree stuff isn't part of Debian(tm), and never can be.  The
 Will> current scheme allows _only_ Debian developers to create packages for
 Will> non-free,  which lends an aura of officialness.  Take non-free completely
 Will> off of the ftp.debian.org (and mirror) system.  Create a
 Will> userland.debian.org site (or something similar) which allows non-Debian
 Will> people to upload stuff in addition to Debian maintainers.  There would,
 Will> of course,  be lots of notices about how "Nothing here is officially
 Will> sanctioned by Debian" and the like.  Move all of the current non-free
 Will> stuff there.
 Will> 	Perhaps we should get in the habit of pgp (gpg) signing the
 Will> Packages.gz files,  so that apt could check and see if a mirror is using
 Will> the right file,  and warn users that they're installing non-Debian
 Will> software if they use such a site.

 Will> 	The stuff in contrib, IMO, belongs in Main.  The GPL says nothing
 Will> about usefulness of software.  Of course, I've got no idea how to resolve
 Will> the dependency problems this raises.

-- 
 "Inferiority complex: a conviction by a jury of your fears." anon
Manoj Srivastava   <srivasta@debian.org>  <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/>
Key C7261095 fingerprint = CB D9 F4 12 68 07 E4 05  CC 2D 27 12 1D F5 E8 6E


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