I recently conducted a poll on debian-user to get some input from users about the FDL issue. The results are available here:
http://people.debian.org/~pyro/fdl_poll_results.txt And the full mail log is available here: http://people.debian.org/~pyro/fdl_poll.mail Here's a summary: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Is it acceptable for Debian to permanently remove most FDL documents so that they are no longer available on Debian mirrors or on Debian CDs? 29 responses Yes: 3 10.3% No: 26 89.7% Don't know: 0 0.0% My comment: Evidently, there is a very strong demand for packaged documentation. It is *not* OK to simply remove the documentation, as what happened with the autoconf documentation earlier this year. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. Is it acceptable if all FDL documents were moved to non-free so that they could still be downloaded from Debian mirrors? Note that they still would not appear on most Debian CDs. 28 responses Yes: 16 57.1% No: 11 39.3% Don't know: 1 3.6% My comment: Having documentation still available in non-free is OK with the majority of the respondents, though many stipulated that it was only acceptable as a last resort (i.e. they preferred keeping it all in main). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3. Should Debian allow documents without invariant sections in main, and only remove/move-to-non-free those with invariant sections? 28 responses Yes: 10 35.7% No: 11 39.3% Don't know: 7 25.0% My comment: Nothing conclusive here. Several who responded with "No" clarified that they believed that all documentation should be kept in main, and others clarified that they felt all of it belongs in non-free. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4. Should Debian modify the Social Contract and/or Debian Free Software Guidelines[1] to allow all FDL documents to remain in the main archive and appear on Debian CDs? [1] http://www.debian.org/social_contract 28 responses Yes: 8 28.6% No: 9 32.1% Don't know: 11 39.3% ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5. Is Debian making a big deal out of a minor issue? Should Debian be focusing more on creating a usable operating system and less on worrying about licensing issues? 30 responses Yes: 18 60.0% No: 9 30.0% Don't know: 3 10.0% My comment: That pretty much speaks for itself. A couple clarified that though license issues were important in general, they felt this particular issue was overblown. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I strongly suggest reading the mail log, since many of the full responses are more interesting than the overall results. Thanks to all those who responded. -- Society is never going to make any progress until we all learn to pretend to like each other. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]