Re: Political climate of Debian
Hi All.
Erinn - that was a very nice summary of this collection of ideas, and
well worth a look for anyone who is interested in getting more involved
in, or learning more about Debian's goals, politics and ideas about
freedom.
Erinn Clark escribió:
[...]
> * The general idea of pragmatism vs. purity
> Debian seems (to me) somewhat divided over this issue. There are people
> who think it's entirely practical -- and indeed, our mission -- to be
> extremely pure. There are also people that feel we are sacrificing our
> users' ability to use the OS due to the hoops they'll have to jump
> through in order to get a working system, or that we've simply lost our
> minds.
It is my impression that division over this issue is a fundamental
aspect of what Debian is today. The basis of the conflict seems to be
expressed in part 4 of the social contract [1], which states that "Our
Priorities are Our Users and Free Software".
As I understand it, this statement doesn't place either the users or the
freedom of the software as being more important than the other thing. I
assume that this was intentional - a deliberate piece of flexibility
within the system. However it perplexes me that Debian can claim to
adhere to such a commitment, because of the potential for conflict
inherent in it.
I think that, for the forseeable future, there will be borderline cases
where the needs of the users to have a usable system conflict with the
freedom of the software. I would like to think that software in general
is increasing in freedom fast enough to make Debian increasingly usable,
as compared to other OSs and distros. However, I am not sure that this
is the case, because new non-free software is also appearing all the
time. Maybe the point is that we need to be able to decide on a roughly
case-by-case basis as to which new borderline situation should be judged
in favour of the users or in favour of the freedom of the software?
What do others on this list (keeping in mind Erinn's remarks below,
which were directed at those who have discussed these issues in great
detail on earlier occasions), think about this issue?
Helen.
1. http://www.debian.org/social_contract
> Another important note I would like to make: we have many "old school"
> Debian people on this list who've thought long and hard on these issues and
> have more or less decided which direction they think Debian is headed (and
> which direction it *should* be headed). While your input could be helpful,
> I'd like to encourage you to keep from turning this into a rehashing of old
> discussions. If you absolutely must contribute, please do so only to clear
> up facts or provide details -- these discussions can get heated
> occasionally, but I'm really just trying to see what people less embroiled
> in the current battles think about where we're headed. Thanks :)
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