[with this message, I attempt to move the debate over to debian-project. Please remove -devel from future messages in this thread!]
On Wed, Jun 07, 2000 at 03:42:27AM -0400, David Graham wrote: > If the non-free software were entirely replaced by free software with the > same functionality, then the non-free software will whither and die of its > own accord. The fact that it continues to thrive demonstrates its > usefulness, and forcing new users to only use free software may send them > to other distributions, where they will be able to install a wider > variety of software due to non-free being present. Points like this have been made several times in the debate. Let me just point out why they may not be valid: The above paragraph appears to accept as given the following: a) Free software is better than non-free software because it *works better*. [long-term, specifically] Is that the motivation for the existence of the debian project? Or is it the following suggestion: b) Free software is better than non-free software because it is *morally better*. ? It's up to you to decide. I became a debian member because I believed (b). I also hope that (a) is true, although I'm not yet entirely convinced by that. But I really believe (b). Now, as it happens, I won't support this amendment. I believe that the time is not yet ripe for this change. I believe that the time /will be/ ripe, sometime, and I will support a similar amendment then. But I think that people should remember that Debian was created on a moral stance, not a practical one. Also, I don't believe that removing non-free from debian prevents people from using non-free software. Alien still exists. Packages can still be installed however upstream /expects/ you to install them (which is rarely a package). In the specific case of lyx, since I'm the lyx maintainer, if this resolution passes I will distribute xforms debs from my personal website until lyx goes totally free (very likely to be before the release of woody). Jules -- Jules Bean | Any sufficiently advanced [EMAIL PROTECTED],jellybean.co.uk} | technology is indistinguishable [EMAIL PROTECTED] | from a perl script