On Thu, Sep 28, 2000 at 06:08:37PM -0500, Ean R . Schuessler wrote: > > I was not saying that FTP would become obsolete, I was saying that CDs will > become obsolete. >
debian-manifesto ---------------- It is also an attempt to create a non-commercial distribution that will be able to effectively compete in the commercial market. It will eventually be distributed by The Free Software Foundation on CD-ROM, and The Debian Linux Association will offer the distribution on floppy disk and tape along with printed manuals, technical support and other end-user essentials. All of the above will be available at little more than cost, and the excess will be put toward further development of free software for all users. Such distribution is essential to the success of the Linux operating system in the commercial market, and it must be done by organizations in a position to successfully advance and advocate free software without the pressure of profits or returns. Note that a great many of the packages in non-free are also anti-commercial. These packages *won't* be distributed by commercial distributors as that is specifically banned in their licenses. If you reply that "That's not Debian's problem" I'll counter by saying it is very clearly a problem for some members of Debian, else those packages would not exist. non-free was defined later for the specific technical purpose of creating a CDROM that could be duplicated by commercial outfits without seeking special license exemptions. And don't you just live the mention of distribution by floppy. How many would that be now? :) Tape.. how many Debian users have ever even used a tape drive? The manifesto hardly needs editting, it's an entertaining historical document. Too bad it hasn't aged as well as the early U.S. political documents or the GNU documents.
