Re: General Resolution: Removing non-free, Draft 2
On Wed, Jun 07, 2000 at 06:13:04PM -0500, Michael A. Miller wrote:
> >>>>> "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
I think you're forgetting something: it is not common to download the debian
packages. The vast majority of the people have only a modem connection, so
upgrade debian with an apt to ftp.debian.org is out of discussion.
The majority of the people simply buy the cd. The contents of the CD is
different from the debian "official archive". It's very common to find
non-free and non-us (here in Europe) packages. And not all the main packages
are installed. On the other hand, a lot of linux magazines come with a cd of
addons (.deb of kde, the last version of abiword, etc).
So it's really easy to use a non free deb, even if it's not an offical
debian package.
So why to purge non-free, if the vast majority of the people can install
non-free packages easily, you can ask.
The problem is not to force free software down the throat to our users, the
problem is that debian is about free software. Debian with this change would
become the free platform over which other can build (and with other I mean:
debian develepers willing to package non-free packages, linux magazines,
software companies, other distributions based on Debian, etc.).
> Mike
>
cheers
--
Francesco Tapparo | cesco@debian.org
fight for your software freedoms: www.fsf.org | tapparo@mat.unimi.it
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