Re: drop or keep non-free - from users viewpoint
On Thu, Mar 11, 2004 at 02:13:03PM -0600, Manoj Srivastava wrote:
> On 08 Mar 2004 13:49:57 -0800, Thomas Bushnell, BSG <tb@becket.net> said:
>
> > Sven Luther <sven.luther@wanadoo.fr> writes:
> >> On Mon, Mar 08, 2004 at 11:46:42AM -0800, Thomas Bushnell, BSG
> >> wrote:
> >> > Sven Luther <sven.luther@wanadoo.fr> writes:
> >> >
> >> > > If i am stopped from maintaining the driver for the ADSL modem
> >> > > that provides me access to the internet, and thus enables me to
> >> > > do my debian work, will you step in and pay me (and others who
> >> > > use the same modem) a new adsl modem that is supported by
> >> > > non-free software.
> >> >
> >> > How could the removal of non-free stop you from maintaining the
> >> > driver?
> >>
> >> No more BTS ? no more download area.
>
> > You could still maintain it; since your purpose is to have access to
> > the internet through this modem, you would still be able to do that
> > whether you were distributing the work to other people or not.
>
> But then everyone else who is saving their time by using
> Sven's driver would have to duplicate it, and that may be a
> significant amount of time lost that culd have gone towards
> something more useful (anyone who can generate a new driver
> has a modicum of technical competence). Even worse, someone
> transitioning to Debian, helped by that driver, shall no longer have
> access, and not yet being able to compile their own drivers, leave --
> and we have lost a future contributor.
Hey, just today i had to help out someone who was doing just that, and
had trouble installing debian/sarge with only this pci adsl modem as a
network connection.
Friendly,
Sven Luther
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