[Fsf-Debian] No response?

[Paul van der Vlis]

Op 06-08-12 13:45, Bryan Baldwin schreef:
> On 08/06/2012 10:27 PM, Paul van der Vlis wrote:
>> I think we should not show something what's non-free or contrib or
>> bad on debian.org. But maybe nonfree.org could show everything
>> (inclusive main).
> 
> That's very interesting. But then to users, nonfree.org becomes the
> new Debian, and Debian becomes the new gNewSense. Its completely
> unobjectionable to do from a freedom standpoint, but is that the best
> possible result? Should not the result be better then the way things
> are as they stand?
> 
> Maybe instead of looking at main vs contrib/nonfree as a case of
> separating Siamese twins, we should look at it as a case of isolating
> and embolizing a tumorous growth. 

You are right in that. But I think you are isolating too when you move
the WTF-people to a site called "nonfree.org".

And free software is free, so you can tell about it even on a nonfree-site.

But I must say that I was only thinking about the package search engine,
not about something else.

No problem when this was not a good idea ;-)

> Maybe after talking about it for
> awhile, we move contrib/nonfree off site. Maybe in bits at first,
> while aintainers still work together, but eventually the user can't
> see debian.org and nonfree.org on the same page. Then in two or three
> years we start dropping redundant packages from nonfree. You know, the
> ones that have free replacements. 

This is already happening.

> We could have spent those two or
> three years knocking some rough corners, and where we're lucky,
> getting some of the people who control the rights to some packages to
> relicense so it can go back to debian.org.
> 
> Then in five, six, seven years or however long it takes, after we've
> cut back a lot of the junk, we can take a hard look and what is left
> over. We can post something up on the front page of nonfree.org,
> saying, "Packages here are deprecated. We are committed to the
> important things our users need by developing replacements or
> convincing the developers to make them free," and start doing it. We
> do that until there isn't enough interest left in nonfree.org to
> warrant keeping the site running. I think we can do that. Maybe not in
> that general timeframe, but whatever ends up being a reasonable enough
> time. Debian has been described as the "it will be finished when its
> finished" distribution. Let's do that here.

Sounds good!

With regards,
Paul van der Vlis.



-- 
Paul van der Vlis Linux systeembeheer, Groningen
http://www.vandervlis.nl