On Mon, Dec 29, 2003 at 08:41:25PM +0000, Andrew Suffield wrote:
> After talking it over with a few people, I'm amending my proposed
> resolution to the following:
>
> The next release of Debian will not be accompanied by a non-free
> section; there will be no more stable releases of the non-free
> section. The Debian project will cease active support of the non-free
> section. Clause 5 of the social contract is repealed.
While this is better than your previous proposal, I would still vote
it below the default option if it were on a ballot. Perhaps, in part,
because I will need to install some non-free software (patent restricted)
to be able to vote on that ballot.
However, I also very much dislike the fact that you would strike the
following language from our social contract:
We acknowledge that some of our users require the use of programs
that don't conform to the Debian Free Software Guidelines.
and
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.
If someone were to implement a decent alternative for that infrastructure,
I would be amenable to leaving that part out of the social contract,
but I do not like your "drop it on the floor" approach to this issue.
Furthermore, I think it's important to acknowledge that some of our
users require the use of non-DFSG software, and to support that use.
More fundamentally, the "line" between "free" and "non-free" is extremely
complex, topologically. I think a fuzzy approach towards handling
stuff on one side of that line vs. the other is much more correct than
an inflexible approach.
--
Raul