Re: non-free and users?
On 2004-01-17 21:30:45 +0000 Raul Miller <moth@debian.org> wrote:
> > What is the distinction between "drop non-free" and "prevent its
> > distribution"?
On Sun, Jan 18, 2004 at 01:58:43AM +0000, MJ Ray wrote:
> Raul, in an email on 5 January, I explained that to prevent something
> is usually to totally stop something from happening, to make it
> impossible.
Yes:
Dropping non-free would prevent Debian developers from distributing any
non-free packages (such as GFDL).
> Please do not assert that removing non-free from the
> debian archive would totally stop its distribution.
I don't make any claims about what the rest of the world would do.
> Not even those who think debian is the One True OS can ignore there
> is a rest of the world which a GR cannot dictate to.
Our GRs usually ignore the rest of the world, precisely because our GRs
are only relevant in the context of Debian.
That, and I [perhaps arrogantly] believe that there is some value to
our users in the packages distributed by debian.
Perhaps some of this value is pure convenience (being able to use
apt-cache search and apt-get install to install documentation for a
program they're trying to use).
Perhaps some of this value is in the way we deal with conflicts and
requirements (probably not an issue for GFDL, but an issue for some of
the other software in non-free).
So, when I'm talking about "prevent distribution of", I'm talking
about "prevent distribution of non-free", not "prevent distribution
of upstream".
--
Raul
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