Please stop insult the other maintainers!

In <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
 on "Sat, 28 Oct 2000 21:40:52 -0500",
  Joseph Carter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

knghtbrd> > > I myself maintain the ocaml package, developped at french INRIA. 
it was
knghtbrd> > > previously distributed under a free but only distribute as 
pristin source +
knghtbrd> > > patch (well no binaries). and couldn't go even in non-free 
without permission
knghtbrd> > > from the author. There are loads of GPLed and other free stuff 
which depended
knghtbrd> > Its a free package but can not even go into non-free? I don't get 
that.
knghtbrd> 
knghtbrd> ... he considers it free enough, apparently, despite Debian's silly
knghtbrd> guidelines that say otherwise.

I don't think that Sven thought that the DFSG is silly.
Just read what he wrote carefully.

In <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
 on "Thu, 26 Oct 2000 11:41:08 +0200",
 with "Re: Non-Constitutional Voting Procedure",
  Sven LUTHER <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

luther> > > I myself maintain the ocaml package, developped at french INRIA. it 
was
luther> > > previously distributed under a free but only distribute as pristin 
source +
luther> > > patch (well no binaries). and couldn't go even in non-free without 
permission
luther> > > from the author. There are loads of GPLed and other free stuff 
which depended
luther> > Its a free package but can not even go into non-free? I don't get 
that.
luther> 
luther> it was not free, because don't permit the distribution of binaries 
compiled
luther> from modified source (and adding a debian dir constitute a modification 
in the
luther> eyes of the lawyers). You cannot fix bug in such a package. Also 
packages that
luther> depend on it go into contrib. but what if the packages is not even in
luther> non-free, you will have a package depending on a package that is 
compiled
luther> differently by every user. I don't know what this can make to bug 
reports.
luther> 
luther> > > This is no netscape or sun, they distribute rpms of the packages, 
but simply
luther> > > lack the time for debian packaging (i guess so, also i suspect most 
of them
luther> > > don't use debian). Sure i could propose as volunteer to package it 
for them,
luther> > > but i would prefer to do it for debian (well no more a problem 
since the
luther> > > package is free now).
luther> > Now its free again? Even weirder...
luther> 
luther> yes, after almost two years, the author changed the licence and it is 
free
luther> now.

I believe Sven thinks that the DFSG is worthy of his two years for 
his difficult management with the author of that software in order
to change the mind of the author.  If he think the DFSG silly, then
why he tried and did so difficult thing using his own precious time ?

I know that knghtbrd had spent his precious time for the negotiation with 
the Qt authors to solve the problem of KDE (which has been solved now).
And I don't think it was in vain, even if knghtbrd himself did think so.

Here is some statistics from the packages file in our ftp servers:

     31 bo_contrib_packages  (3.16%:bo_main)
    101 hamm_contrib_packages (6.63%:hamm_main)
     97 slink_contrib_packages (4.28%:slink_main)
    124 potato_contrib_packages (3.20%:potato_main)

    115 bo_non-free_packages (11.73%:bo_main)
    227 hamm_non-free_packages (14.90%:hamm_main)
    298 slink_non-free_packages (13.13%:slink_main)
    323 potato_non-free_packages (8.34%:potato_main)

    980 bo_main_packages
   1524 hamm_main_packages
   2269 slink_main_packages
   3871 potato_main_packages

      5 hamm_main-to-potato_non-free (0.328%:hamm_main)
      5 slink_main-to-potato_non-free (0.220%:slink_main)
     21 bo_non-free-to-potato_main (18.261%:bo_non-free)
     31 bo_main-to-potato_non-free (3.163%:bo_main)
     31 slink_non-free-to-potato_main (10.403%:slink_non-free)
     38 hamm_non-free-to-potato_main (16.740%:hamm_non-free)

The left most numbers are the number of packages in the specific conditions.

This shows that more than 1 of 6th of non-free in bo has changed its license
to be main in the potato, while 1 of 33th of main in bo has moved into
non-free in potato.  The latter does not directly mean the change of the
license, but it includes the re-evaluation of the license after the creation
of the Social Contract and the DFSG (please remind of the release date of bo).

And the number of packages which have moved from non-free in hamm or slink
into main in poatato, is more than 6 or 7 times larger than the number of 
packages which have moved from main in hamm or slink into non-free in potato.

I think this statistics shows the effort done by lots of maintainers,
and do very apprecitate them.

Why so pessimistic to be ? Why can't believe in/trust the fellow members
and the idea of the Free Softwares ?

We are the Debian members who have faith on the future of the Free Softwares, 
aren't we ?

Please don't depreciate what our fellow members done in order to promote
and evagelize our DFSG.  What they achieved is far more important than
silly flame-war in small mailing list.

-- 
  Taketoshi Sano: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

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