[med-svn] r5581 - trunk/community/papers/11_med-floss_luxemburg

Michael Hanke mih at alioth.debian.org
Fri Dec 10 02:06:33 UTC 2010


Author: mih
Date: 2010-12-10 02:06:32 +0000 (Fri, 10 Dec 2010)
New Revision: 5581

Modified:
   trunk/community/papers/11_med-floss_luxemburg/paper-text.tex
Log:
Sharing work.

Modified: trunk/community/papers/11_med-floss_luxemburg/paper-text.tex
===================================================================
--- trunk/community/papers/11_med-floss_luxemburg/paper-text.tex	2010-12-10 01:55:49 UTC (rev 5580)
+++ trunk/community/papers/11_med-floss_luxemburg/paper-text.tex	2010-12-10 02:06:32 UTC (rev 5581)
@@ -169,17 +169,25 @@
 
 
 \section{Principles of Free Software Distribution}
+% To me this section is more a description of core properties of Debian than
+% about principles of Free software distribution. If my impression is wrong
+% then many other distributions should be mentioned here as well.
 
 \subsection{Sharing the work -- Debian and cross platform}
+% I'm not sure about the purpose of this whole section intro. What does it
+% want to say? It starts with Debian as the best possible and ends with
+% saying that the actual platform choice doesn't really matter much?
 
 The Debian Project is an association of individuals who share the
 intention to create the best possible free operating system.  This
 operating system is called Debian GNU/Linux, or simply
 Debian.  Everybody on the Internet may initiate a site and
-offer Debian packages. A local administrator
-has to decide, if this public source may be trusted.
+offer Debian packages.
+% this topic doesn't fit here
+%A local administrator
+%has to decide, if this public source may be trusted.
 
-For Free Software development to work, it requires a critical mass of
+To make free Software development work, it requires a critical mass of
 supporters. Development without feedback prior to the submission of
 the final product is disadvantageous.  The development of programs is
 not the main concern of a regular Linux Distribution.  However, with
@@ -200,24 +208,24 @@
 
 \subsubsection{Debian Free Software Guidelines and Debian Policy}
 
-Free or not free - Debian has a collection of conditions referred
+Free or not free: Debian has a collection of criteria, referred
 to as the
 \printurl{http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines}{Debian
-  Free Software Guidelines (DFSG)} that allow the distinction
-between Free, distributable as non-free and not distributable.
-The most notable of these rules are that software must be allowed
-to be modified, that those modifications be allowed to be redistributed
-and that the recipient is granted the same rights. Also, there
-shall be no restriction on the recipients to whom those rights
-are granted or the work that is exerted with that software. 
-Many software packages are distributed as free for academia, which
-are then redistributed not in the main Debian distribution but
-in the non-free section.
+  Free Software Guidelines (DFSG)}, that allow to free and open-source
+software from other categories of software.
+The most notable of these rules is that a software license must permit
+modifications and that those modifications are allowed to be redistributed,
+while granting the recipient the same rights. Moreover, there
+shall be no restrictions imposed on the recipients to whom those rights
+are granted regarding the work that is exerted with that software. 
+For example, Debian does not consider software as \textit{free} that comes as
+\textit{free for academia}. Such software cannot become part of the Debian
+system, but may only by offered in supplemental repositories.
 
-Another rule that should be stressed is that it is explicitly
-stated that above rules need to be granted for all operating
-systems, i.e. not only for Debian. This is another indication 
-for an intrinsic impetus to help Free software at large.
+Another important rule is that any granted permission must not be specific to
+Debian, but shall be universally applicable to anyone, i.e. another software
+vendor or an individual users. This requirement is another indication for an
+intrinsic impetus to help Free software at large.
 
 %The Debian Policy describes the structure and contents of the Debian
 %archive and several design issues of the operating system, as well as
@@ -254,20 +262,20 @@
 actively influence the support of certain work fields.  
 Here, community-driven Linux distributions have an edge over 
 commercial Linux distributions. The number of users that may use
-a package, i.e. that pay back for the initial packaging effort,
-is not the decisive factor for or against the maintenance of a
+a package, i.e. that pay back for an initial packaging effort,
+is not the decisive factor in favor or against the maintenance of a
 package. One only needs a sufficiently large community of active
-package maintainers that give the confidence that the current
+package maintainers to have confidence that the current
 infrastructure will be maintained, that new packages will 
 be brought into the distribution and that one will possibly be
-allowed to improve current workflows with the external stimuli.
-Debian Med is actively profiting from this fact and is supporting a
+allowed to improve current workflows with personal contributions.
+Debian Med is actively benefiting from this aspect and is supporting a
 lot of applications which are very specific to medical care and are
 not integrated in any other large distribution.
 
 The advantage of plugging Free Medical Software directly into a large
 Linux distribution as opposed to creating a separate distribution with a
-specific focus on medical care will be discussed below.
+specific focus on medical care will be further discussed below.
 
 \subsection{Technological infrastructure of Debian}
 




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