RE: Subject: dselect and contrib/non-free - DWN-6/22 > > Wichert Akkerman has proposed splitting non-free and contrib out to a > > new server, nonfree.debian.org. The impetus for this is to emphasize > > that they are not part of Debian, since "the distinction isn't as > > visible as it used to be; advances in searching in the distribution > > and tools like apt make it very hard to see when something is in main > > and when not". The proposal will come up for a vote soon and is > > generating lots of discussion. > > One thing that might help is if dselect does not sort purely alphabetical > when sorting by section. contrib/* should not be between comm and devel, > but rather be apart from main. Same thing for non-free. >
I suspect that putting contrib and non-free on a different server will make it harder for newbies like myself to get packages with apt and harder in general to find things. If that's correct, I think a different approach to making a clear distinction would be better.