Re: Clarifications
Time to add my $US0.014, I guess...
Debian is a great system and I'm glad to be a part of it. I use it at
home and I promote it at work. All of our unix servers run Debian and
it's really a pleasure to maintain.
At home, I like having access to some of the programs in non-free, and at
work we can do whatever is required to fulfill the license for those
utilities we wish to use. Having everthing available via the Debian
ftp and http sites makes it easy to find and install.
If non-fee were to be removed, a lot of useful software would suddenly
be unavailable to those would wish to use it. This doesn't help
Debian's cause. It's easier to switch to a distribution that does
have it than to go searching. Reducing our user base will not help us.
It seems to me that some people think that the existance of "non-free"
is a threat to "free". I see no reason why both cannot coexist. In
all truth, I think our effort is better spent working on ways to
integrate both ideas in to one coherent system than to try to kill
one off. The simple reality is that neither is going to go away. Let's
put our energy where it will do the most practical good.
Brian
( bcwhite@pobox.com )
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Premature optimization is the root of all evil. -- Donald Knuth
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