Re: Another Non-Free Proposal
Can a Debian user make a comment here?
I am not a Debian developer, although I am a professional developer and
administrator. Having read most of this thread and some similar past
threads: there is a big point that everybody always seems to miss:
Debian is not 100% free software. Debian is non-free software.
Debian is not 100% free software. Debian is non-free software.
Debian is not 100% free software. Debian is non-free software.
I repeated that statement because you developers floating around up here
in legalistic-definition land are missing the point. Out here in the
real world, if Debian servers are distributing non-free software, and
more importantly, if Debian installer software by default conspiciously
offers to install that non-free software onto Debian user's systems,
then Debian as a whole is non-free in the eyes of 99.999% of it's
users. RMS is not being pedantic on this point, he's being extremely
realistic. You folks can sit up here all day long and define different
theoretical definitions about how "this free part of Debian is really
Debian" and "this non-free part of Debian is not really Debian" but to
us real human beings it's all Debian, see?
LOGIC:
IF you think that Debian should by definition be a 100% free distribution:
THEN kick non-free (and contrib) off of Debian servers and out of the
installer's default options. PERIOD.
(AND all the arguments about how much trouble this may or may not cause
become irrelevant).
That's reality. So the only important question is: do you want to work
on a free distribution or a proprietary one? Right now you are working
on a proprietary one. Yes I am defining "a proprietary distribution" as
"a distribution containing any non-free software" and I'm sure some of
the language lawyers here can spend hours proving why I'm right about that.
Shawn Yarbrough
shawn@nailstorm.com
On Sat, Jan 03, 2004 at 10:45:57PM -0500, Raul Miller wrote:
On Jan 3, 2004, at 19:59, Raul Miller wrote:
>> I don't see anything there which which would justify forcing
>> people to not support non-free.
On Sat, Jan 03, 2004 at 10:05:31PM -0500, Anthony DeRobertis wrote:
> Well, nothing is _forcing_ someone else not to.
That's the point of this vote, isn't it? To get people to stop
putting any further effort into "non-free"?
Nope. As I understand it, the point is to make it clear that such
effort does not directly and effectively further the goals of the Debian
Project -- the first and foremost of which is that "Debian Will Remain 100%
Free Software"[1].
[1] http://www.debian.org/social_contract
--
G. Branden Robinson | Men use thought only to justify
Debian GNU/Linux | their wrong doings, and speech only
branden@debian.org | to conceal their thoughts.
http://people.debian.org/~branden/
<http://people.debian.org/%7Ebranden/> | -- Voltaire
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