On Sat, Jan 31, 2004 at 02:00:19AM -0500, Raul Miller wrote:
> Actually, if the phrase were that ambiguous, your statement about what
> it means would be consistent with the social contract, but the social
> contract still would have other conflicting meanings.
>
> That your interpetation conflicts with the use of the phrase in the
> social contract is a good sign that it's not that ambiguous.
Er...
What I mean is that the term "the Debian system" is ambiguous
outside the Social Contract. It _can_ be interpreted in ways that are
not implied by "the Debian distribution." Since you asked why some
people prefer the latter, I gave you some reasoning.
> Also, note that my proposal would add a sentence to the social contract
> to make the meaning of the phrase clearer.
I don't see how anyone could confuse the meaning of "the Debian
distribution." This means that it is less ambiguous than "the Debian
system."
I believe that it's better to use terms that are more specific,
so we don't have to go around speaking a small variant of English.
Simon
