Unless the user is aware of the problems of software licensing, he will never know what GNU/Linux is all about.
I agree with you, and I am constantly working to inform people about this. The best way to bring this issue to users' attention is to (1) provide articles about the issue, which we do in places like http://www.gnu.org/philosophy, and (2) show we mean business about the issue, by not recommending programs which aren't free. Encouraging users to use non-free programs works against this, because it undermines the message. If a user wants to use non-free packages, why should the information on how to get them be hided? It is against my conscience to help advertise non-free programs, so I don't want to do that. Your conscience may say different things; you may want to advertise them to users. But why do you demand that I advertise these programs? Can't we compromise so that you can do what you want, and I can do what I want? That is all I am asking for. > For example, I think that a comment in an apt configuration file is > not a big issue, assuming most users won't see the comment, because > they just use apt rather than looking directly at its configuration > file. Come on, are users that stupid? There seems to be a misunderstanding here, because I did not say that anyone is stupid. This has nothing to do with intelligence or stupidity, it is a question of what the usual and convenient usage patterns are.