On Mon, 9 Apr 2007 17:20:33 -0700, Steve Langasek <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said:
> On Mon, Apr 09, 2007 at 02:06:14PM -0500, Manoj Srivastava wrote:
>> Secondly, these large application developers you seem to speak of
>> appear to be proprietary application developers -- which mean that in
>> my eyes the issue pales to insignificance. Are we talking about
>> closed source software here?
> Absolutely. Are you interested in how Debian competes in the market
> place, or are you only interested that it remains free and useful to
> you personally?
I am interested in a free and powerful OS for the free software
community -- like minded people, those who are interested in pushing
freedom of software, as opposed to taking the path of least
resistance.
> Even if you're only interested in the latter, doesn't its usefulness
> depend on the network effects of having other developers interested in
> Debian and working on it as a project, which makes market share
> relevant in any case?
I am not convinced that the free software community can't keep
the project supplied with developers (in other words, people like me).
I am far more interested in creating a free OS than in a great platform
for non-free software (if it happens incidentally, then I am not upset
by it either).
> In a world where a significant majority of our (current or
> prospective) userbase needs closed source software in order to
> accomplish the things they set out to with their computers, how Debian
That does not really describe me, and not the target audience I
put in my work for.
> interfaces with such closed-source software is of some relevance to
> all of us who want to see Debian thrive, even if we choose not to use
> that software ourselves.
Helping closed source software developers is not an itch I feel
like scratching. But if other people want to spend time making things
easy for closed software, I am of course not going to stand in their
way, no matter what my opinions on such activities are.
However, if it comes to a choice between free software and
making things easier for non free software developers, or negatively
impacting libre software to help closed source software development, I
know how I would choose.
So hurrying the release process to help out closed source
development is not likely to see me as cheering from the sidelines,
no. (pardon me if I am misinterpreting the thread as it happened on
-release, where the proposed time-line of releasing in two years are
being argued against because closed source software developers might
decide to select against Debian -- which seems close enough to
"hurrying up" to me). If that is not the case here, then I apologize
for the noise.
manoj
--
In order to live free and happily, you must sacrifice boredom. It is not
always an easy sacrifice.
Manoj Srivastava <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <http://www.debian.org/~srivasta/>
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