On Sun, 04 Jul 1999, Joseph Carter wrote: > If I cannot find it when I look specifically for it, it's not there.
I hope you're just saying that. I could mention tens of examples from science, bug-fixing crusades, even religion to prove you wrong. You can't find quarks even when you look specifically for them, so they don't exist (fyi, quarks are impossible to isolate, you only see their effects). You can't find a bug no matter how hard you search for it, therefore it doesn't exist, and a day later someone else finds the bug. You can't find God no matter how hard you look for him, so he doesn't exist (though this particular argument I withdraw, because it's based on personal belief, so feel free to reject it). Bottom line, if you can't find it when you look for it, look harder. it's there. There's no such thing as 'I looked as hard as possible'. Wrt to non-free, if you referring to ignorant newbies they won't be able to find ls, let alone netscape. Anyone else that's smart enough to actually search for what he wants, he will find it one way or the other. Still, I don't disagree with you. I myself am opposed to treating non-free as evil. It is not evil, if anything its existence is required to recognize the true value of free software. Yes, many people will actually argue that 'free software' is inherently better than non-free. It is not better, it becomes better because of its adaptability, because of its fast evolution and the geniuses that actually are part of this evolution. Moving away non-free software, in a simple case as this one, or even in an ideal world as RMS visualises, would be actually a bad thing for free software because the motive to outperform non-free equivalents would be removed. Unless I am mistaken, one of the most important motives for free software authors is to make a free program that is better than the non-free equivalent (linux anyone?) So, even if the choices are there, yes, Debian should explicitly state them to new users. Most of us are used to knowing where to look for something, or the difference between using free/non-free software, new users don't. Remember the important thing is not freeness of software, it's its usefullness. THe fact that freeness allows for software to become useful is not the goal, it is the means. -- Konstantinos Margaritis
