Re: General Resolution: Removing non-free, Draft 2

[mmiller3@iupui.edu (Michael A. Miller)]

>>>>> "Michael" == Michael Kelly <kellym@nbnet.nb.ca> writes:

    > You're not in any way being forced not to use non-free
    > software if it is removed from the Debian archives. The
    > only distinction is that you would no longer be able to
    > obtain non-free software from Debian. That software is
    > still just as available and usable from it's upstream
    > source as it was before.

That is quite true - it is also true that in may cases, being
able to type "apt-get install package" makes a package much more
available and usable.  In the extreme case, consider X11.  Sure
it is available and usable from it upstream sources, but it is
much easier to install the Debian package than to download,
compile and install the whole thing by hand.  Fortunately it has
a free license and a very generous package maintainer(s) so it
can be easily be installed.  I recognize that this is an extreme
example, but I raise it to point out that Debian packages do add
something to the upstream distributions that would be lost if we
decide to remove it.  If it didn't, there would be nothing to
remove. 

Mike

-- 
Michael A. Miller                      mmiller@debian.org