Re: call for seconds: on firmware
(Quote attribution elided on purpose.)
> Stop your FUD.
>
> The Release Team isn't violating the Social Contract.
It is my opinion that releasing lenny with known DFSG violations is a
violation of the Social Contract, on the part of the project as a whole,
regardless of which individuals are making the decisions. I further
think that including sourceless firmware in main is a DFSG violation. It
is my firm belief that the decision to violate the SC with a release
should be taken by the project as a whole, via a GR, and that individual
members, whether delegated or not, cannot make that decision. Based on
recent discussions it seems to me that the release team is attempting to
release lenny speedily and taking on itself to decide that the SC
violation is acceptable. Thus, I think Robert is correct: the release
team is violating the Social Contract.
Further, I find it unacceptable to attack him for attempting to discuss
this (mostly in a constructive manner, no less) and attempting to have
the project decide on this via a GR. I would find it unacceptable even
if it turned out that Robert was wrong. We should refute his arguments
by counter-arguments based on fact, not by harrassing him. So far, most
people disagreeing with Robert seem to be counter-arguing him, not his
arguments.
I understand that the people most involved in release management find it
very frustrating that the freeze is taking a long time, but taking that
frustration out on Robert is not the way to solve this.
I also understand that the firmware issue is quite controversial in
Debian. That's a reason to think carefully, not to blast out personal
attacks. Or, indeed, to blast out lots of e-mails on this topic at all.
On the whole, this discussion has had little sanity, and even less
thoughtfulness, courtesy, and civility. Shame on us.
For the record, I'm all for releasing lenny with the current known
sourceless firmware included, like we did for sarge and etch. Every
release gets better than the previous in this regard, so there's
progress. However, I do not see that the previous votes are
justification for automatically taking the same decision for lenny,
without voting. I might even vote for a decision to have a permanent
release exception, although I wouldn't vote for including sourceless
firmware in main.
I admit that given how little I've helped with lenny during its entire
development cycle I have little ground to stand on, but I am not going
to let that get in my way to the soap box. Thank you for listening.
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