Re: Proposal: Source code is important for all works in Debian, and required for programmatic ones

[Sven Luther <sven.luther@wanadoo.fr>]

On Fri, Aug 25, 2006 at 01:20:19PM +0100, Enrico Zini wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 24, 2006 at 11:51:51PM -0700, Don Armstrong wrote:
> 
> > 4. Finally, if in the context of the release of etch, we need to
> >    compromise our ideals and accept programmatic works without source,
> >    we should do so by specifically exempting them from DFSG 2 for the
> >    purpose of releasing etch by a GR which needs to meet the 3:1
> >    requirement instead of attempting to define ourselves into such a
> >    position, especially when source code is clearly a desirable thing
> >    to have from our users and our perspective.
> 
> Thanks Don.  I like the proposal, however I'm not seconding it.
> 
> My position is: "sourceless firmware sucks, but at the moment we happen
> to need it, just like sourceless BIOSes".
> 
> In this view, I see two problems with your GR:
>  1. It needs a separate vote to affirm "we happen to need it".

Enrico :

  ruoso made a first proposal for such a 'we need it' GR, and the kernel team,
  associated with maybe a part of the RM and d-i team, have another more full
  fledged proposal about this in preparation.

>  2. It would make the exception etch-specific, just like we previously
>     made a sarge-specific exception, and now we have to vote on the same
>     issue again.

Yep.

> I understand that the urgent issue is "are we ok in having sourceless
> firmware in etch?", and I think it's a waste of time to vote a GR that
> doesn't address that.
> 
> Then, if an exception is to be defined, I'd it to be defined not in
> terms of some future release we can't predict, but in term of "until we
> can't possibly do without".  Unfortunately, my attempt[1] at wording
> this latter point didn't get it right, and I can't come out with
> anything better.

If the etch+1 release schedule is again 18month, this would leave us with
approximately two year to solve the issue, which should be plentiful, my guess
is that it will take us approximately 6 month to a year, depending on how we
do it, and how things go with licence clarification with upstream.

But the etch freeze started almost a month ago, and it is now too late for
etch.

Friendly,

Sven Luther