On Wed, Apr 13, 2005 at 09:30:26PM -0400, David Nusinow wrote: > On Wed, Apr 13, 2005 at 04:44:59AM -0400, Erinn Clark wrote: > > Another important note I would like to make: we have many "old school" > > Debian people on this list who've thought long and hard on these issues and > > have more or less decided which direction they think Debian is headed (and > > which direction it *should* be headed). While your input could be helpful, > > I'd like to encourage you to keep from turning this into a rehashing of old > > discussions. If you absolutely must contribute, please do so only to clear > > up facts or provide details -- these discussions can get heated > > occasionally, but I'm really just trying to see what people less embroiled > > in the current battles think about where we're headed. Thanks :) > > I'd like to raise this part of Erinn's mail again. Unfortunately, we have a > lot of familiar names who've responded to this mail. While these are the > names of people who have thought long and hard about this problem, I think > it's important for all of us to step back and listen to people who are > outside the magic circle and looking to get in. A number of contributors to > this list are here because they don't fit the classic mold of a Debian > Developer, and I think it's important that we hear them. Erinn has given us > all a great opportunity here, so we shouldn't squander it. > > So come on all you lurkers! Tell us what you think. Please don't think that > you have to solve all these problems yourself, but voicing your thoughts > and doubts is all that's needed.
Well, I can say what I want Debian to be: I'd like Debian to be as Free as possible, and to keep making the distinction between Not-Quite-Free and Really-Free software. I hate the proliferation of "we'll take your first-born, and your first-born's first-born in return for giving you permission to use our software this year" type license, and I love the idea that everything in a Debian system conforms to the DFSG so I don't really have to go through it and read each and every license. I hope that is the way of the future for all licensing agreements. Expecting everyone to read all the license agreements that are thrown at them is really not practical - not a "sustainable" practice. I try to keep non-free off my machines, but sometimes I have to install something. It is nice to be able to do so using a debian-style package, rather than a tarball. I'm glad Debian is taking a proactive approach to encouraging the various upstreams to use Free licenses. I hope we won't be losing a pile of documentation off the Debian distro... maybe we could stick it in another category (other than "main") instead of taking it right off, at least for another release or two, to allow people to write original DFSG-licensed replacements. Putting the Not-Quite-Free packages into the other category would make it obvious that those packages are prime candidates for replacement with Really-Free stuff. cheerio, bjb -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
