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Re: Negative Summary of the Split Proposal



On Sat, Jul 03, 1999 at 07:37:54PM -0500, Chris Lawrence wrote:
> 4. We go out of our way to ensure people never face the choice they
>    supposedly have.  (Perhaps we bury some obscure config option in
>    /etc/apt/sources.list, instead of asking in dinstall or apt's
>    postinst "Would you like to use Debian or Red Hat packages?")

Actually, if the option to use non-free software was available in
sources.list but commented out, and it was possible to find the location
of Software which doesn't "Meet Our Free-Software Standards" the social
contract says is there if one wished to look for it, I would not object
to the split.

It is that Richard wants there to be no indication that the non-free
archive exists OTHER THAN the non-free archive itself that I have a
problem with.

If I were certain that what we are discussing here is just moving the
archives to another box and making apt not use the non-free archive by
default, I have no problem with it.  As long as there is still mention
someplace that is not hard to find if you're looking for it, I have no
problem with it because a reasonable person would figure out that they
needed to look.  Up until then we don't have to wave it around at them.

At that point they have made their decision and they DO want to find
non-free software.  If we make it so they can't, we ARE in fact hiding
it.  I'd rather spend the effort required to hide it instead telling
people exactly why a given package is non-free and what other packages
they might consider either additionally or in place of the non-free
package.  That way they can make an informed decision.

--
Joseph Carter <knghtbrd@debian.org>            Debian GNU/Linux developer
PGP: E8D68481E3A8BB77 8EE22996C9445FBE            The Source Comes First!
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<BenC> -include ../../debian/el33t.h
<BenC> sendmail build...strange header name :)
<isildur> hahaha
* netgod laffs
<netgod> BenC: can u tell i used to maintain sendmail?  :P
<BenC> heh :)

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