On Mon, Jun 21, 1999 at 11:30:41PM +0200, Wichert Akkerman - Debian project leader wrote:
> I already mentioned a while ago that I think that the distinction
> between main and contrib & non-free is becoming less clear, both
> to users and developers.
First off, I agree this is a bad thing and regret I must also concede
that the problem may require this solution, though I don't like it much.
I'll stick to opinions and questions in this message for the moment.
> The Debian distribution itself consists only of the main-tree. Contrib
> and non-free are there mostly as a (popular) service to our users. But
> the distinction isn't as visible as it used to be; advances in searching
> in the distribution and tools like apt make it very hard to see when
> something is in main and when not. Just using seperate trees in the
> archive isn't as effective a method making the distinction anymore as it
> used to be.
Especially given what you mentioned once before about splitting main into
more logical distributions.. Are you still planning to propose this or
is it the next in line after this?
> The social contract has as the very first item `Debian Will Remain 100%
> Free Software'. So we need to do something to make once again clear
> to everyone exactly what Debian is and show more clearly what we don't
> consider to be free. I see two ways of doing that:
>
> I. Create a new host, nonfree.debian.org and move non-free and contrib
> there and ask our mirrors if they can consider also mirroring that.
>
> II. Create a new host, official.debian.org and copy main there and use
> that consistantly when we refer to the Debian distribution.
I think it could be done simply by moving contrib and non-free out of the
dists/ directory.. Nobody is confused as to project/experimental and I
think they would be no more confused by something on the order of
nondebian/potato/{contrib,non-free} vs dists/potato/main or (possibly in
the future) dists/potato/hamradio ...
> Personally I strongly prefer the first option: it makes it much more
> clear that the Debian distribution contains only DFSG-free software,
> and that contrib and nonfree are an extra.
SOMEBODY somewhere is going to argue that contrib isn't non-free and
shouldn't be treated as such. You won't hear me arguing it, however you
have been warned.. =>
> I hereby propose to resolve this matter by General Resolution (ie a
> vote).
Depending on replies to my questions and comments from you and others, I
may do something like propose an ammendment or something...
--
Joseph Carter <knghtbrd@debian.org> Debian GNU/Linux developer
PGP: E8D68481E3A8BB77 8EE22996C9445FBE The Source Comes First!
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Mere nonexistence is a feeble excuse for declaring a thing unseeable. You
*can* see dragons. You just have to look in the right direction.
-- John Hasler
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