On Thu, Jan 18, 2007 at 07:06:04PM -0600, John C wrote: > > > Kevin Mark wrote: > >-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > >Hash: SHA1 > > > >On Thu, Jan 18, 2007 at 04:21:31PM -0600, John C wrote: > ><snip> > >>Many in the Free Software Movement consider Debian and Ubuntu to > >>be not "free" enough because they contain "non-free" software. > >>It's one of the prime reasons for the startup of gNewSense. > ><snip> > >Are you saying that there is FSF- defined "non-free" software in Debian? > >Please identify this. > > > I'm not saying that at all, I'm saying that there are many Free > Software proponents who consider the "non-free" designated > software as exactly that - non-free. This statement confuses me. Debian has more than one repository and they delineate free from non-free. They never claim that 'non-free' repos are anything but. And I assume that gNewSense has only one repository - free. But the issue seems to be that Debian even has any non-free repos, even if they state that these are not officially part of a stable release. They are there to support the developers and the users who need them. Also, when Debian began, Linux was hard to install and few things were supported, now there are more things supported -- this is the foundation upon which gNewSense and Ubuntu now draw. Debian has tried to support the myriad of hardware that exists now, gNewSense is not at a point where it has millions of folks supporting it on hardware that may or may not need binary kernel bits or other fun things. Debian needs to add a bit of pragmatism in the mix of its goal of 100% free software. It has a goal to be useful to its users as part of its bargin. gNewSense may have that intention but it can only grow at the pace that the other folks solve the issue of support for those bits that need less-than-free stuff. (aka catchup) Cheers, Kev
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