Debian and Quality
I have been reading a bit of the discussion regarding the inclusion of
non-free in Debian. Although I'm not a Debian developer or maintainer,
it's hard for me be quiet.
I very much appreciate open source software both for the ethic of open
source and for the quality that often emerges from open source efforts.
I developed one of the leading 'open source' alternatives to the CP/M
kernel (NovaDOS) in the early 80s, freely available and distributed as
source via the network of ZCPR3 bulletin boards before the Internet was
available to most of us and before anyone, including me, had heard of
open source as a concept. I hope, therefore, that what I say carries at
least a bit of weight.
As far as Debian is concerned, I'm strictly a pragmatic consumer.
Although I appreciate many of the advantages of Linux and Debian by
virtue of their being open source projects, I keep coming back to Debian
for one reason and one reason only, and that is its quality. I've used
and worked with other distributions, many of which get ragged around the
edges when pushed, but the commitment to quality and the integration of
the incredible bredth of packages available for Debian stands for me out
as clearly superior to that of other Linux distributions.
It is strictly a no-nevermind to me whether the non-free portion of the
distribution is available from official Debian Project sources or
available elsewhere. I depend on MySQL, as well as on Netscape, and if
I didn't get them as .deb packages with the distribution, I'd have to
get them somewhere else, either as .deb packages (as with KDE) or as
compiled binaries, or as old-fashioned Unix sources. An extra line in
my sources.list should be sufficient. What does matter to me, however,
is that the quality of these packages and that of the core Debian
distribution is maintained, and if the quality of the distribution,
including both free and non-free, falls below that of other
distributions, I'm history as far as Debian is concerned. At that point
the Debian development community will have failed to live up to the
potential inherent in the open source development paridigm and will have
left the path of wisdom.
Please remember that many of us depend on the excellent quality and
diversity of Debian. We're not developers, nor are we open source
theorists - we're just people trying to do the best jobs we can using
the best tools available. We like the open source software we use
because it's damned good and the people who write it treat us like
adults and colleagues rather than children or mere consumers. I don't
give a rat's butt in a hurricane whether non-free is part of the
official Debian distribution as long as I can still get the quality
tools I need to do the work that puts food on my table and the play that
keeps me growing. I'm not afraid of the legal subtleties in non-free
licenses, and if I have to, I'll work around them or switch to
equivalent packages. No one needs to protect me from non-free software.
Surely, with the extent of talent available in the Debian development
community a clever and creative solution can be found to resolve the
whole business of non-free vs. free. packages which will satisfy
everyone and keep the level of quality up - and let the Debian Project
get on with the real work at hand. Inclusive is better than exclusive
and has more influence. Honey draws more flies than vinegar. A lot of
us out here have our fingres crossed.
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