Re: GR: Removal of non-free
On Sat, Jan 03, 2004 at 11:48:02PM -0600, Manoj Srivastava wrote:
> I see non-free as an area where we put in software for which
> there is not yet a free replacement, so that our usaers can use
> Debian, not as a pedantically pure toy, but as a useful tool in a
> world that is not yet all libre software, in the hope that, just like
> netscape, free replacements shall render the software in non-free
> obsolete.
As a matter of fact, both acroread and netscape-* had free replacements
(although not identical) for years. One of them perhaps a bit less
functional than the non-free one (xpdf), the other ones quite more so
(mozilla, konqueror). Still, they were not removed from non-free by the
first sight of a free replacement, but got abandoned because of the zlib
security exploit, which could not be fixed lacking the source.
That's how I remember it, at least.
Michael
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