On Sun, Jun 04, 2006 at 08:45:11AM -0400, Roberto C. Sanchez wrote: > Christian Perrier wrote: > > And isn't another "small cabal" of freeness junkies, who cannot accept > > that it is actually possible to work with commercial vendors to assist > > them in their way to free software, doing exactly the opposite by > > playing words with legal issues ? > > > Please explain how this helping them on their way to free software. > Don't get me wrong, I applaud their contributions to the open > source/free software communities (NetBeans, OpenOffice, Gnome > contributions, etc). However, I have a hard time understanding how > Debian distributing Java, which, judging by all the debate, is still > under questionable license terms, will help. In my opinion, a continued > refusal to distribute it until it met the required criteria would be > much better. As it stands, here is it appears: > > Sun has gained for Java: > - "approval" or "validation" as "free enough" for all Linux distros > (remember, Debian is seen as the most restrictive in this regard)
Debian has not accepted Java in main. Any user sufficiently proficient with anything remotely Debian-related knows that. > - a willing accomplice I'd suggest anyone googling for "Debian Java" and stumbling on this thread will think differently. > - a demotivation to find more favorable licensing terms Since the people who've made this happen have claimed they want to go on with this, I question that. > Debian has gained: > - lots of people blogging about this whole mess Wonderful, isn't it? > - possible future legal problems (extent is still being sorted out) By whom? A bunch of people with too much time on their hands. Is there an actual lawyer involved? I don't think so. > - something it already had (admins who really wanted Sun's Java could > always go to java.sun.com and install it themselves or use java-package) Well, see, *this* is not true. Sure, it's possible to install Java on a Debian system; one can even turn a non-free binary java distribution into a Debian package and install that by using java-package. However, this is a far cry from * Being able to install non-free Java on your Debian system, even if the oldest Java binaries being distributed by the original authors are more recent than the ones java-package is ready for * Being able to just install non-free Java by running "apt-get install". * Being able to upgrade to a newer (fixed) version of Java by just running "apt-get upgrade" But you knew that already, I'm sure. -- Fun will now commence -- Seven Of Nine, "Ashes to Ashes", stardate 53679.4 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]