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Re: The "Free" vs. "Non-Free" issue



On 2004-01-07 14:13:23 +0000 Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> wrote:

What is the temporal scope of our social contract? [...] If
forever, [...] Why is there a way to change it in the constitution?

	If you mean dropping promised support with no transition, then
forever.

...and if I don't? Regardless, why do you think we can change this, yet it should not be changed? Can a GR commit to any specific transition support?

Would creating a specific transition plan before knowing whether the transition is going to happen be flamed as premature? Would adding the words "there will be a transition plan" be enough?

	Do these individual packages have active, responsive
develpers, and a user community that is engaged? If so (though I
rarely bandy around words like "immoral"), yes, that would have been
wrong too.

I am almost certain there have been active developers and users of a deleted package.

The "reliability and loyalty" case for non-free is dubious, as we
can't properly test, verify or repair some of it.
	Why is it dubious? Because you say so? How is it any less
testable than the utility of Debian as a whole?

I think it can be less testable because a "no testing" licence can get into non-free. That is part of why I think it dubious, but things like inability to repair is more important: users get used to some software, then it gets deleted thanks to an unfixable serious bug. Ow.

Will that ever happen? Will non-free packagers work towards this?
	When there is no need for the non-free packages, the packagers
shall desist.

That didn't answer my second question. I think some packagers are reluctant to help reduce the need for their non-free packages, so I suspect that they will never accept their packages are not needed and we will never satisfy the "when" part of your answer.

--
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