Re: deregulate/purge "non-free"; merge "contrib" & "main"
On Wed, 23 Jun 1999, Will Lowe wrote:
> > > current scheme allows _only_ Debian developers to create packages for
> > > non-free, which lends an aura of officialness. Take non-free completely
> > The non-free packages *are* packaged to Debian's high standard and *are*
> > managable through the BTS.
> My point is:
>
> Is this a Good Thing(tm)?
>
> ... by doing this, we're _directly_supporting_ non-free software. I
> suggest that Debian's resources are not officially intended for this
> purpose.
Clause 5 of the Social Contract is very clear on this:
5. Programs That Don't Meet Our Free-Software Standards
We acknowledge that some of our users require the use of programs
that don't conform to the Debian Free Software Guidelines. We have
created "contrib" and "non-free" areas in our FTP archive for this
software. The software in these directories is not part of the
Debian system, although it has been configured for use with
Debian. We encourage CD manufacturers to read the licenses of
software packages in these directories and determine if they can
distribute that software on their CDs. Thus, although non-free
software isn't a part of Debian, we support its use, and we
provide infrastructure (such as our bug-tracking system and
mailing lists) for non-free software packages.
Debian's resources -ARE- officially intended for supporting non-free
software and we DO officially support it's use. So, yes we do support
non-free software and yes this is what we have been doing.
Moving around the non-free distribution point won't change that fact.
Jason
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