Re: RFD: amendment of Debian Social Contract
On Sat, Nov 08, 2003 at 07:11:41PM -0500, Branden Robinson wrote:
> It seems to me, then, that we are already in practice treating non-free
> as less important than the main distribution. Moreover, we have been
> doing so for quite some time.
>
> In this sense, the removal of clause 5 from the Social Contract would
> simply seem to be an acknowledgement of the status quo, similar to my
> proposed amendment to clause 3.
You seem to be saying that parts of the social contract which are less
important than other parts should be removed from the social contract.
> You'll note that my proposed amendment includes the language:
>
> We will support our users who develop and run non-free software on
> Debian, but we will never make the system depend on an item of
> non-free software.
Like Anthony, I'm concerned that this says nothing about us distributing
non-free software. It's entirely possible to interpret your amendment
as forbidding the distribution of non-free software [without violating
the above language]. "Of course we support users of non-free software --
XYZZY runs fine on our glibc."
I urge you to consider language which allows the ftp archive maintainers
distribute non-free software from debian mirrors should they deem this a
good idea. Specifically, one which aligns with the ideals expressed in:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2003/debian-vote-200311/msg00119.html
> It is thus not true that, if my proposed amendment passes, that we're
> encouraged to tell users of non-free software on Debian systems to go
> take a flying leap. We will continue to do what we can for them.
Taking a flying leap isn't the issue. The issue is what would the social
contract allow us to do.
[In the past, various people have said that Ian Jackson's original draft
of the constitution was awful because of ambiguities contained therein.
I thought you were one of them? Anyways, I don't know why you're pushing
so hard for a social contract with this kind of ambiguity in it.]
--
Raul
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