Re: Moving contrib and non-free of master.debian.org
On Wed, Jun 23, 1999 at 07:28:29AM +1000, Hamish Moffatt wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 22, 1999 at 03:28:23PM +0100, Giuliano Procida wrote:
> > On Tue, Jun 22, 1999 at 10:49:24PM +1000, Hamish Moffatt wrote:
> > > Because [contrib is] useless without non-free.
> >
> > This is untrue. There are items in contrib which do not depend on
> > items in Debian's non-free archive, but do instead depend on
> > externally available non-free items. Two obvious examples are:
> >
> > 1. installer/helpers for commercial or other non-free apps; and
> > 2. free emulators that require ROM images for normal use.
> >
> > I strongly object to any move of contrib. I formally oppose any voting
> > proposal to that effect (should this mean anything).
>
> contrib has always been treated as unofficial, same as non-free.
> Why should this change now?
But it is DFSG free, independently that you use it or not.
Suppose i need to use a nono-free package for one reason or another. I
install it, knowingly that it is non-free.
But then there are lot of DFSG free packages that depend on it,
because there are no free replacement for it for example. These go in
contrib, but are still DFSG free, and using it cause your no
conscience problem or whatever.
This is the same as the 'can use non-free stuff if it comes with the
system' clause of the GPL. the FSF added that because not everything
they needed was free back in those days. The same is true today, not
everything we need is available freely yet. But still stuff in
contrib is free, sure it is not really useful without non-free, but it
is DFSG free.
I think the real problem with it is that with current apt, you will
automatically install the non-free software when installing contrib
one.
> With both your examples above, you still can't use the stuff for free.
That is not true, there are lots of stuff in non-free who is really
almost free. For my part, i maintain a package (ocaml) that is almost
DFSG free. The only problem is that modification can only be done
in patch form (wich altough not recommended is DFSG free) and not
bniary distribution of modified version is permitted (but debian
packages are permitted). I am in discution with the authors about it,
but they feel not ready yet to open it completely, being afraid of
getting bugreports of modified version and other such stuff.
Ok this package is in non-free. But there are other packages who are
under the LGPL ot GPL or another free license, and by the simple fact
that they are written in the ocaml language have to go in contrib. Ok,
that i understand also, altough it is a pain, but they are DFSG free,
and i would not like them to be second zone debian packages just
because of that.
So if you want to move away non-free, do it, altough i guess it will
not change anything, just be a pain for everyone, but don't touch
contrib.
Friendly,
Sven LUTHER
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