Re: Negative Summary of the Split Proposal

[Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

    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.

What I would like is a way we culd distribute Debian while probably
not telling users about non-free packages.  There may be some overlap
between that and what you have said you would accept.

We know there will still be Debian web pages about the non-free Debian
packages, on a Debian web server.  That being so, to completely
expunge from the Official Debian system, and its web pages, even the
slightest or most indirect reference to non-free packages, would go
beyond the point of diminishing returns.

I would just like to see an end to the prominent connections, the ones
that users are quite likely to come upon, likely to lead them to
non-free software.


For example, I think that a comment in an apt configuration file is
not a big issue, assuming most users won't see the comment, because
they just use apt rather than looking directly at its configuration
file.