Marcus.Brinkmann writes: > Getting as much free software on CD as possible is something that I > consider of high value (it really saves money for us who are living in > such a country).
There is no reason why the CD vendor can't add back packages that are missing from the Debian site he mirrors solely because they depend on packages illegal at its location. We could make this easy by putting packages with unmet dependencies is a special directory. > The installation program knows about the situation and can inform the > user about strategies to solve it (for example, adding a mirror from > another country to the sources list of apt). Just being silent about it > is more annoying and confusing to the user, IMHO. Just because the package itself is absent from a CD doesn't mean that the install software can't know about it and suggest strategies for getting it. > Maybe there are some users who can use the sources to start from there to > something they can use in their country. Why do you want to prevent this > possibility in the first place? I don't see that we are doing so. > Removing perfectly free software seems to be against this goal... I'm only proposing to remove it from those Debian sites where its dependencies cannot be satisfied. Debian is the union of all the Debian sites around the world. There is no reason why a CD must be an exact copy of the archive on any particular Debian site. Cd's could contain unrestricted packages with dependencies that are missing due to local restrictions, and the install software could warn the user about this and suggest strategies. -- John Hasler [EMAIL PROTECTED] (John Hasler) Dancing Horse Hill Elmwood, WI
